Continuing Education Credits (CECs)

REPs Continuing Education Credits (CECs)

One of the requirements of exercise professionals re-registering with REPs is ensuring adequate ongoing education. Ongoing education is measured by a system of credits called Continuing Education Credits (CECs).

CEC Requirements (info for exercise professionals)

Each year an exercise professional must earn 30 CECs per year. These may be earned in two ways:

1) Up to 20 CECs may be earned from working in the industry (subject to working at least 250 hours over a year in an exercise prescription role, or instructing 50 classes a year for group exercise). As a part of re-registration this is verified.

2) From attending/passing a course that has been allocated CECs (a list of these courses can be found here).

Special Notes:

An exercise professional may carry forward a shortfall of up to 10 CECs in any one year as long as they commit to undertaking those CECs during the next 12 months.

When an exercise professional first registers there is no requirement to have earned any CECs.

CECs are valid for TWO re-registration periods (so a person earning 40 in one year has earned enough for their upcoming re-registration, plus 10 for the following year).

CEC Allocation

CEC allocation is based on 5 CECs per 8 hours training. CECs are allocated to training/education events such as workshops/conferences/conventions/training programmes etc on the following basis:

Courses/events that are fully assessed (i.e. have an exam and/or practical assessment at the end of the training that enables a pass or fail result) receive double CEC allocation (so 10 CECs for 8 hours of training) for those that pass the course/event. Those that fail receive no CECs.
Courses/events of less than one days duration are awarded CECs proportional to the above calculation e.g. a 4 hour course that is non assessed is 2.5 CECs. Course CECs are rounded to the nearest 1.25 CECs.
Correspondence courses may be allocated CECs as long as they are assessed, but receive CEC allocation equivalent to a non assessed course.
A course/event may be awarded a maximum of 50 CECs, the minimum is 2.5
A course/event that involves multiple non assessed topics over a short period (e.g. four 45 minute workshops in one morning) may be eligible for the assessed rate, if the course/event has been attended in full by a REPs reviewer (at the cost of the provider) AND the presenters are recognised experts in their field, and the majority of the topics are advanced in nature (i.e. not "back to basics" type material) AND the event/course is at least 4 hours long, and has at least 3 different topics and 3 presenters.

How the CEC period works (info for education providers)

The "CEC year" for providers runs from 1 July to 31 June the following year. (Note this differs from the registration year of REPs individuals, which runs 1 October - 30 September. The above dates apply to the education providers only, not individuals or facilities).

So any course that applies for CECs is awarded them from the the previous July, up untill 31 June. eg a course first run in October 2010 that applies for CECs then it would be awarded CECs from October 2010 to 31 June 2011 (so the course can be run as many times as the provider wishes during that period, and each time it will be eligable for CECs, as long as the provider advises REPs of the dates).

All courses pay the normal review fee (regardless of what they apply) and are given a pro-rata credit for the following year (see costs below for details).

Costs for CECs (as of 1 January 2010)

A one off course review for CECs costs $200+gst (if paid for at the time).
Courses re-registering the following year pay 50% of this ($100+gst).
Workshops facilitated by a Registered Exercise Facility that are for their own staff only, can apply in bulk once a year for a $200 fee (up to 10 workshops).
Education providers with more than 6 courses, can apply to have these all reviewed in bulk, and the fee is 50% (so $100 per course).

The cost includes review of the course, and inclusion of the course in the REPs CEC web page (except for workshops for staff only - see above).

The course can be re-run by the provider as often as they like during the CEC year (see above), and each one will be re-promoted on the CEC web page for no additional charge (the provider just needs to advise REPs of this). This can be done here.

Courses that apply for CECs part way through the year receive CECs from the date review or when the course was first run (whichever is earlier) up until 30 June. Where this is 11 months or less, then a credit it made available for that education provider to use the following CEC year for any course. eg a provider applies for CECs on 1 November 2010 for a course first run 1 September 2010. The course is given CECs for the period 1 September 2010 - 30 June 2011 (10 Months) . The provider pays the normal fee ($200+gst) and receives a credit of 2 months (or $33.33 + gst) that can be used in the 2011 CEC year.

Additional Links

Education providers can apply for CECs here.

Education providers can promote their courses using the options found here