Information for providers

Accredited PD

NESA accredits professional development (PD) courses in alignment with the Accreditation of Professional Development Courses Policy (the Policy) and Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (the Standards). The requirements of the Policy aim to ensure that all teachers in NSW have access to quality PD in prescribed priority areas to complete to improve their practice and improve student learning outcomes and meet their ongoing teacher accreditation requirements.

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 at the Proficient, Highly Accomplished or Lead Teacher level of the Standards.

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. All other organisations can apply to NESA to have their courses accredited.

Examples of ineligible courses

Some examples of courses that do not meet NESA Accredited PD requirements include:

• responding to and/or 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 and/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/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

NESA Accredited PD are courses that 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. Elective PD must meet our Elective PD guidelines.

Related content

• Accreditation of Professional Development Courses Policy
• Principles of effective professional learning
• Priority areas
• Apply
• Resources
• PD requirements