Understanding Professionals' Reasons for Participating in Continuing Professional Education

Abstract

The demand for continuing professional education (CPE) programs has dramatically increased during the past decade. According to various reports, U.S. employers increased employee education spending by 24 to 32 percent in the past decade. Many of these employers seek external service providers to meet their employees' education needs. One cause for the increase in demand is the trend toward professionalization in various career fields. As those fields seek professional recognition, they are requiring their practitioners to become licensed, certified or accredited. For the practitioners to maintain their licenses, certifications or accreditation, they must participate in CPE programs. Career fields such as medicine, dentistry, law, social work, teaching, accounting and real estate require continuing education for their professionals. From the professionals' perspective, CPE also helps practitioners to keep current in their fields, maximize their competence, advance in their careers and enjoy greater job security. Universities are in an excellent position to become the prime service providers of continuing professional education. Most have the resources, facilities, finances, content experts, and technology to market and conduct continuing professional education programs effectively The only element that they lack is market information on factors that lead individuals to participate in CPE programs. Without this information, universities risk losing their CPE business to for-profit firms who already have access to this information. To develop effective continuing professional education programs, the following questions must be considered: 1. What professional and personal factors lead individuals to participate in CPE programs? 2. Are these factors internal or external? 3. How can these factors be helpful in recruiting and retaining CPE participants? Once universities have the necessary information, they can better market existing continuing professional education programs to the public, create future programs and restructure current programs to better meet learner goals. There are both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators for learning. Extrinsic motivators would include expected financial benefit and status such as bonuses, promotions, and rewards. One way for universities to attract extrinsically motivated professionals to their programs is to offer a certificate program with recognition of successful completion granted after participation in a select group of courses. Professionals take pride in having certificates with a university name on them. Another type of extrinsic motivation that is common in CPE is awarding credentials. Many career fields require their practitioners to be certified, licensed or accredited to ensure they are recognized as members of the profession. …