Formal vs informal CPD for BC builders

Formal CPD earns 2 points per hour of instruction and can only be issued by accredited post-secondary institutions and the industry associations BC Housing names. Informal CPD earns 1 point per hour and covers every other qualifying activity, which is why nearly all online and on-demand training is informal. You can meet the full 20-point requirement with either, or any mix; what matters is that the points are counted at the right rate and backed by a record.

The two categories

Who can give formal points

The formal rate is reserved for learning that BC Housing treats as academic: courses from accredited post-secondary institutions (universities, colleges, BCIT and similar) and from the industry associations it lists on its CPD page. The common thread is an institution with its own accreditation or a recognized association with a curriculum, enrolment and assessment. A private training company, a supplier, a software vendor, a municipality running a code update night, or a builder running in-house training is not on that list, however good the content is.

The practical consequence: if a provider that is not an institution or a named association tells you its course is “2 points per hour”, check the current BC Housing list before you report it that way. Over-claiming the rate is one of the simplest things an audit catches, because the provider’s name is on the certificate.

Why almost all online CPD is informal

Online training is delivered by providers who are not institutions. The format is not the issue; an online course from a college can be formal. The provider is. Since most on-demand construction training in BC comes from private providers and associations that are not on the formal list, it is informal at 1 point per hour. That is not a mark against it. BC Housing counts 20 informal points exactly the same as 20 formal points at renewal, and an informal course that is current, BC-specific and backed by a proper completion record is better evidence in an audit than a formal transcript for a generic course.

What informal CPD has to be

Informal does not mean anything goes. The activity has to be instruction, relevant to residential construction, in one of the core competency areas (relevant enactments, construction management, construction technology, customer service and warranty, financial planning, legal issues, business planning) or business ethics, with hours you can show. Attending a trade show counts for the sessions you sat in, not the hours you walked the floor. A supplier lunch counts if there was a presentation with content, for the length of the presentation. Reading a code book on your own does not count. BC Housing also sets limits on some categories of informal activity; check the current page before you rely on one category for most of your points.

Counting it correctly

• Points are per hour of instruction. Breaks, networking and travel are not instruction.
• A 90-minute webinar is 1.5 informal points. A 50-minute one is not a full point.
• A course can be claimed once, unless it substantially changed. Repeating last year’s webinar earns nothing.
• The points belong to the CPD nominee. Training done by someone else in the company does not count toward the licence.
• Report the rate the provider is entitled to, not the rate on the flyer.

Choosing between them

Formal is worth it when a relevant course runs on dates you can make, the subject is one you would study anyway (a building technology diploma course, a construction law course), and the price per point makes sense after you count the days off site. Informal is the default for everything else: current-year code changes, Step Code practice, lien law, warranty response, business planning. For most 1-to-5-home builders, 20 informal hours on demand costs less, fits around the job, and produces a cleaner record than ten scattered sessions. The price per point for the main BC options is on the comparison page.

How Builder Pass labels its points

Every Builder Pass course is informal, 1 point per hour of instruction, and the completion record says so. The pass is 12 courses and 26 hours, so 26 informal points for a 20-point term, with the spare 6 carrying forward if your nominee stays the same. We do not describe any course as formal and we do not claim BC Housing endorsement. The courses are built to meet BC Housing’s CPD criteria and we are applying for listing on the Education Registry. If you want the points without the scheduling, get your 20 points.