At Benchmarque Group we are all about providing the best possible education to healthcare professionals with both our non-accredited and ASQA-accredited courses.

General Practitioners make up a large proportion of our student cohort, so becoming Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) approved CPD provider as well as having approved RACGP CPD activities is extremely valuable to us. 

Becoming an approved RACGP CPD provider

The first step to being able to have our courses approved as RACGP CPD activities was first to get the organisation approved as a CPD Education Provider. To be eligible to become an accredited provider, Benchmarque Group had to meet a number of criteria, those being;

• Benchmarque Group had to have an education background or have suitably qualified education staff
• Benchmarque Group was able to meet the CPD activity and Provider requirements of being an RACGP CPD Provider as outlined in the RACGP CPD Standards
• Benchmarque Group had to have at least 12 months’ demonstrated experience delivering education to GPs in Australia.

Ali, our Learning and Development Manager and Nicole, our Projects Integration Manager, both participated in the CPD representative registration and training. This training was part of the approval process. We became approved RACGP CPD Providers in March 2023.

Approved RACGP CPD Activity 

The next step in the process was getting our first course approved. Following their training, Ali and Nicole presented our first submissions for RACGP CPD Approved Activity for review. For this process, we chose to submit our Course in Ear Wax Removal (Microsuction) to become our first approved RACGP CPD activity (Activity Id: 502807).

In order for this course to become a RACGP CPD Activity, some of the documentation we had to provide was:

• Specialist GP approval to review the content of the CPD activity. 
• Relevance of the Microsuction to General Practice.
• A Needs Assessment - the course content must be covered in the 2022 RACGP Curriculum and Syllabus for Australian General Practice.
• A description of the course’s relevance to a GP audience and what they will learn from it.

We were extremely fortunate to get our submission reviewed so quickly. This review process involved a few small tweaks in our application and after that, our Course in Ear Wax Removal (Microsuction) became an approved RACGP CPD activity. 

With the success in having our Course in Ear Wax Removal (Microsuction) approved, we plan on now commencing the same activity with our courses, Perform Peripheral Intravenous (IV) Cannulation and Splinting, Immobilisation & Fracture Management and many courses after that. 

When speaking to Nicole, our Project Integration Manger about the process, she said: “This activity was right in my wheelhouse. Whilst it was challenging, I was determined to get my head around the process and make it work. Ali was such a great support with the educational aspects of the project.”

We look forward to seeing many of our other courses become approved RACGP CPD activities in the near future. 

To enrol in our approved RACGP CPD course, Ear Wax Removal (Microsuction) just head to our website!