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Meet your professional development requirements
Professional Development requirements
If your current maintenance period started:
- on or before 29 November 2020 then follow the maintenance transition arrangements
- after 29 November 2020, follow the professional development (PD) requirements on this page.
To maintain your accreditation, you need to engage in a range of ongoing PD activities.
By the end of your maintenance period, you must have completed a minimum of 100 hours of PD related to the Standards at or above Proficient Teacher.
The 100 hours must consist of:
- a minimum 50 hours of NESA Accredited PD that must include PD in each of the mandatory priority areas
- the balance of the 100 hours being any combination of NESA Accredited PD and/or Elective PD.
Find NESA Accredited PD courses on NESA Learning.
For Elective PD requirements and examples, visit our Professional Development requirements page.
Mandatory priority areas
The 4 mandatory priority areas for PD are:
- delivery and assessment of NSW Curriculum/Early Years Learning Framework
- student/child mental health
- students/children with disability
- Aboriginal education and supporting Aboriginal students/children.
The optional priority area is Leadership to support the learning outcomes of students and children.
Non-school/service based teachers
Maintenance of Proficient Teacher accreditation is voluntary if you are in a non-school/service based role. You can maintain your accreditation if you are able to meet the required 100 hours of PD by the end of your maintenance period.
If you have limited opportunity to access relevant PD that is aligned to the Standards in your current role, you can consider putting your accreditation on hold by applying for a Leave of Absence or switching to Non-practising accreditation, depending on your situation.
You cannot teach in any NSW school or service as a Non-practising teacher, or while on a Leave of Absence.
Evaluate your NESA Accredited PD
When you complete a NESA Accredited PD, the course provider will record it in your NESA online account (eTAMS).
You must evaluate the PD in your eTAMS account to ensure you have a minimum of 50 hours of NESA Accredited PD recorded. The 50 hours must include PD in each of the 4 mandatory priority areas.
Record your Elective PD
You must retain a record of any completed Elective PD that captures the:
- date completed
- Standard Descriptors addressed
- duration of the activity or course.
You must keep your record for 12 months after you have submitted your maintenance. You can use our optional log template to record your Elective PD.
NESA may audit your Elective PD record.
As part of NESA’s quality assurance processes, NESA conducts random audits of teachers’ Elective PD records after they have submitted their maintenance.
If audited, you will need to provide your record within 28 days. Read more about NESA’s quality assurance processes.
Failure to submit your maintenance within your timeframe
If you are due to submit your maintenance but haven't met your PD requirements, you can:
- discuss your professional development goals with your principal or service director
- develop a plan for how you can work towards meeting your PD requirements.
If you are still unable to meet your PD requirements within your timeframe, you can apply to NESA for an extension using the Application for extension of accreditation timeframe (PDF 223.05KB).
You may only apply for an extension in the final 6 months before your due date and you will need to provide evidence of the grounds for your request.
Grounds for an extension include:
- illness and misadventure
- carer responsibilities
- undertaking further study, or
- other applicable professional or individual circumstances.