Continuing professional education (CPE) is an important part of any professional career. Participation in the large range of CPE activities available through ARCS and other sources provides members with enhanced professional awareness and "state of the art" knowledge in their discipline areas. The rapid advances and changes which occur in the therapeutics industry suggest that CPE should be an essential component of the professional standards required to practice as a scientist within the pharmaceutical industry as it is in many other industries.

For that reason, in 2003, ARCS investigated how to implement a CPE programme. We began by giving hours based credits for every ARCS activity to which members attended. ARCS has been tracking the number of hours you spend at any ARCS continuing education programs and you can see the number of hours you have undertaken when you log on to the ARCS web site and view your member profile. We have now expanded to a scheme based on a points system and are now accepting submissions for ARCS CPE Certification. The CPE points scheme will take into account all forms of relevant educational activity and will also award points for activities such as attendance at meetings, membership of ESC, presentation at meetings, etc. You will also be able to claim credit for non-ARCS activities, such as in-house training, postgraduate study etc, by entering these points according to the Continuing Professional Education Points Scheme Allocation table yourself into the ”Professional Development ” section of the ARCS Members website.

Once you have received the required number of points, print you transcript from the ARCS website and send this together with supporting evidence for approval to Joseph Badolato at the ARCS Business Office, Suite 904, 28 Clarke Street, Crows Nest NSW 2065, Australia. Please note: Evidence must be provided for all claims for points (e.g. Attendance Certificate, Registration Flyer, etc). Only relevant educational activities and memberships which fulfils the mission of ARCS “to enhance their performance in their roles within the Australian and New Zealand pharmaceutical, medical devices, diagnostic or other healthcare industries” will be included in the CPE scheme.

Members will receive an ARCS Certificate of Completion and your name will appear on an ARCS CPE Completed list on the ARCS website.