Search for Online CPD courses grows significantly in 2012

Like many other everyday topics, as the internet becomes more and more a part of our daily life, the search for online courses to complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training has grown with it. Using Google's 'Trends' tool, we can see that since 2004, the online search for CPD has risen year on year.

Indeed, like many other products, this rise in search goes hand in hand with people's adoption of new technology, and over the years it has become quite apparent that trust in online training has rightly grown. With the use of the right Learning Management System, professionals have virtually instant access to a learner record that allows them to track just how much of their CPD training has been completed.

Virtual College is a CPD member and offers a number of accredited courses that are not only relevant to a range of professions, but come with a handy time guide on each course description page, so you can see just how much a specific course will contribute. All Virtual College courses that are certified also come with the option to print out a certificate with the contribution times attached to certify you have completed the training.

So what have people been looking for?

Recently safeguarding courses have been popular, as many professions deal with children and vulnerable adults on a regular basis. For example, you may not think a dentist would need to complete safeguarding training, but they deal with children on a day to day basis and may be the first person to spot hidden signs of neglect.

So what about the people looking for these courses? Shown as “breakout” terms, it appears that CPD for teachers, Dental CPD and CPD RPSGB (Pharmaceuticals). The largest rise in search however, is for the term "CPD online". According to Google’s statistics, there has recently been a 400% increase in searches for this particular phrase.