NSW builder licence renewal: the CPD checklist

Published by PointCPD · Topic: Compliance · Part of the NSW builder CPD guide

Renewal is the one moment the CPD requirement has teeth. The Commissioner can refuse to renew a builder or swimming pool builder licence if the 12 points are not there, and the same applies to restoring a licence that has lapsed. Nothing is lodged during the year, so renewal is also the first time most builders find out whether they actually kept up. This checklist is the order to do things in, starting a few months out.

Before you start: two facts to pin down

Your renewal date. It is on your licence card and on the public register at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au. Your CPD year ends on that date, not on 30 June and not on 31 December. If you have a three- or five-year licence, the requirement is still 12 points in each year of the term, so count each year separately.

Your carry-forward. If you earned more than 12 points last year, up to 11 of the surplus carried into this year. Only points above 12 carry, only 11 of them, and only for 12 months. If last year was exactly 12, you carry nothing.

The checklist

1. Write down your renewal date and work back 12 months. That window is the only one that counts for this renewal. Points earned before it belong to last year; points earned after you lodge belong to next year.
2. List every CPD activity inside the window. Course, workshop, seminar, conference, online module. Date, provider, topic, hours, points. This is the diary the regulator expects you to keep; if it does not exist yet, build it now from your certificates and emails.
3. Add the points, then add any carry-forward. Interactive learning is 1 point per hour. Assessed RTO or university learning tied to a training package or degree is 2 points per hour. Apprentices, trainees and a partner learning on the business’s behalf are worth 1 to 2 points, capped at 4 a year in total.
4. Check each activity against the four tests. Interactive, on one of the eight approved topics, with identifiable learning outcomes, from a provider with industry expertise. If something was a passive video or a product pitch, do not count it.
5. Check you have a record of attendance for every entry. It should show your name and licence number, the course title and its topic area, the date, the duration, the assessment type, the trainer or provider, and the points. A certificate with just a title is weak evidence.
6. If you are under 12, close the gap now. At 1 point per hour the gap is the same number of hours. Choose activities on a topic you would actually use; there is no rule requiring a spread across topics.
7. If you are over 12, note what carries forward. Up to 11 surplus points carry into next year. Write the number in the diary now so next year’s count starts right.
8. Do not lodge until the points are in the window. Complete the last activity, get the certificate, then lodge. Not the other way round.
9. File everything for three renewal periods. On a three-year licence that is nine years. A folder in cloud storage named by CPD year is enough; your PointCPD account keeps its certificates permanently and each one can be verified by serial number.
10. Put next year’s first course in the calendar. One activity early in the CPD year is the difference between a checklist and a scramble.

If you are short with weeks to go

Count precisely first: builders often forget an industry seminar or a supplier workshop that qualifies. Then close the gap with activities you can finish and evidence before you lodge. Online interactive courses are the practical option because the certificate is issued the moment you pass, but check the four tests rather than the marketing. A course that is a slideshow with a quiz bolted on is not interactive learning, whatever the site says.

A worked example: renewal on 14 November, 5 points earned since last November, nothing carried forward. Gap of 7 points. At 1 point per hour that is seven hours of qualifying learning. Three or four PointCPD courses at 2 points each, done across a couple of evenings, with certificates in hand well before the lodgement date.

What renewal does not require

• An approved provider. There is no register of approved builder CPD providers in NSW, and Building Commission NSW does not endorse providers. The 1-point tier can be delivered by any provider with industry expertise. More on that here.
• An RTO number on the certificate. Only relevant for 2-point activities, which must be delivered by an RTO or university.
• Points in every topic. Any mix of the eight topics is compliant.
• Uploading anything. Records are kept, not submitted.

Keeping it from happening again

Twelve points is twelve hours of interactive learning a year. Spread across the year that is an hour a month, and most builders would rather do that on a topic they choose than twelve hours in the last week on whatever is left. Add your renewal date to your PointCPD dashboard and it counts down, shows which CPD year each course fell in, and tracks carry-forward for you. The complete NSW CPD guide covers every rule referenced above in more depth.

Questions builders ask

Sources: NSW Government, Continuing professional development for builders and swimming pool builders; Home Building Act 1989 (NSW).