Contining Professional Development: Your free guide to compliance to for ICAEW accountants

As a qualified accountant, meeting your annual ICAEW Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements is essential, but we believe that accessing high-quality CPD content shouldn’t be locked behind a membership paywall. Whether you're a contractor, career-break professional, or simply looking to save money, it’s entirely possible to meet your 30-hour (Category 2) CPD requirement with free and publicly accessible resources.

If you're an ACCA, ICAS, CIMA, or CPA qualified accountant as well, don't click away just yet as in this post, I’ve compared some of the ICAEW’s best, but members-only CPD content with free alternatives available to all, grouped into categories; ethics, technical knowledge, and soft skills.

What are my CPD requirements?

The current year for CPD runs from 1st November 2024 - 31st October 2025 and the ICAEW splits members into three CPD categories based on risk and responsibilities of your role:

Category	Example role	CPD hours required	Verifiable hours required
1	Audit partner of public interest entity	40	30
2	Finance directors of large/ medium firms	30	20
3	General accountants or tax advisors	20	10

It's always a good idea however to confirm your requirements each year using ICAEWs online self assessment tool.

As most accountants will fall into categories 2 and 3, and given the extensive resources likely made available to category 1 accountants due to the nature of their role, this guide will focus on meeting the requirements for category 2 accountants. However, given the alternative free and open access resources, there is more than enough material linked in this guide to adhere to category 1 requirements.

1, Ethics

Topic	ICAEW resource	CPD hours	Free alternative	CPD hours
Ethics fundamentals	ICAEW ethics CPD course (modules 3 and 5 added for 2025)	Up to 16 hrs (6 hours new material)	Coursera - Ethics for accountants (free sign up required)	approx 4 hrs
Case studies and dilemmas	Ethical dilemmas helpsheets (non-verifiable, but no log in required to view)	approx 1 hr per helpsheet	Accounting CPD - Ethics: Dilemmas and threats (free sign up required)	1 hr

As all our roles are different, the ICAEW does not mandate any specific topics to be covered as part of their CPD requirements. Ethics however, is the exception to this rule and so in each CPD year, members must complete at least one hour of verifiable ethics related training.

2, Technical Knowledge

Topic	ICAEW resource	CPD hours	Free alternative	CPD hours
Digital transformation	Finance in a digital world	4 hrs	Coursera - Accounting analytics (free sign up required)	2 hrs per module
Tax and reporting updates	Tax faculty/ Practice webinars	approx 1 hr per webinar	EY Academy webinars BrightTALK	1-3 hrs per session (updated regularly)
Technical updates	Virtual CPD conference 2025	3.5 hrs	Accounting journals and magazines	Varies by article (non-verifiable)

3, Soft skills & leadership

Topic	ICAEW resource	CPD hours	Free alternative	CPD hours
Leadership skills	Soft skills for finance leaders	2-3 hrs	Cambridge institute - Leadership Webinars (free sign up required)	1-2 hrs per session
Communication & influence	Communication and influencing CPD	2 hrs	YouTube - Mastering strategic influence	1 hr (non-verifiable)

Final thoughts

While most of us will meet our CPD requirements naturally through our day-to-day work, training courses, and general reading, sometimes it's not always at the forefront of our minds to document everything on our CPD record. Whilst it's always best to document all CPD and focus on areas of interest and topics relevant to your particular role, with the above accessible content in addition, you can confidently meet your annual CPD requirements, and grow your skills at the same time.

If you found this useful, please share with your colleagues or peers, and if you use any useful CPD material not mentioned, please add a comment below to share with us all!