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Requirements of accredited PD courses
Accrediting PD courses
To be accredited, each course must:
- address the principles of effective professional learning (the Principles)
- meet the NESA content criteria requirements for the applicable priority area
- include content and activities that directly align with relevant Standard Descriptors (described in level of the Standards) at the following levels:
PD providers can apply to NESA to have their courses accredited.
The following providers are authorised to assess and accredit PD on NESA’s behalf based on meeting the above requirements:
- NSW Department of Education
- Catholic Schools NSW and the Archdioceses and Dioceses of NSW
- Association of Independent Schools of NSW
- The Professional Teachers’ Council NSW.
An individual non-government school can apply through a streamlined process to have PD recognised as NESA Accredited PD. This PD can be delivered solely to teachers at that school.
How NESA assesses applications
NESA uses a strengths-based approach when assessing teacher PD courses against the Principles. This means assessments are based on where the course meets the principles, rather than what the course is lacking.
NESA also uses a risk-based assessment, where courses with difficult knowledge or contentious information can either be referred to a panel or not be accredited, even if all principles have been met.
All 8 principles must be met for the course to be accredited.
Assessment of the ability of the organisation to run the proposed course is included in the Accreditation of Professional Development Courses Policy (the Policy). It includes:
- business structure and insurances
- course presenters’ skills and experience
- internal policies for quality assurance.
The organisation is also expected to have and demonstrate:
- secure data management systems
- gathering and processing course evaluation data
- use of evaluation and feedback for continual improvement of content and delivery.
Ineligible courses
Courses that do not meet NESA Accredited PD requirements include:
- responding to and administering first aid for physical injuries
- responding to acute medical conditions such as anaphylaxis and asthma
- co-curricular activities such as sport or debating coaching
- teacher wellbeing
- learning about or implementing a paid product, publication or ‘software as a service’ online learning program
- events where learning activities or content are not identified before the event
- study tours involving travel to multiple sites
- excursions or events involving school students or children in early childhood services, where the focus is on student or child learning and the teacher’s participation is providing duty of care
- courses made from a recording of a live webinar event without significant modification to create an on-demand course.
Elective PD courses explained
NESA Accredited PD courses are specifically designed for NSW teachers in the nominated priority areas. PD courses that do not meet the accreditation requirements may be relevant and valuable to teachers, depending on their individual learning needs and goals.
Teachers can choose to log these courses as Elective PD. Elective PD:
- can contribute up to half of a Proficient teachers’ maintenance requirements
- must meet our Elective PD guidelines.