Are There Any Free Webinars That Offer PDs?

By / BA Certification, Career Strategy

Reader’s question:

Can you share your list of free webinars that offer PDs?

Let’s start by defining our terms, because there can be a lot of confusion when it comes to professional credits towards your IIBA® or PMI® certifications:

  • Professional Development Hour (PD) – required to apply for the ECBA® or CCBA®,  and 35 for the CBAP® exams. These are needed if you are looking to obtain one of these certifications.
  • Professional Development Units (PDUs) – PMI® designation for continuing education, to maintain (or re-certify) for a PMI certification.
  • Continuing Development Units (CDUs) – an IIBA® designation for continuing education, to maintain (or re-certify) for an IIBA certification.

To answer the reader’s question, there are no free options to earn Professional Development hours as part of obtaining your certification. In order for a “class” to qualify for PDs it must:

  • contain material related to business analysis tasks, techniques or underlying competencies,
  • an instructor must lead the students through the material, and
  • students must have the ability to interact with the instructor and other students in the class.

We do offer complimentary webinars from time-to-time at Bridging the Gap, and these do qualify for CDUs. But they do not qualify for PDs because webinars do not provide the required interaction between students and the instructor to qualify for Professional Development hours.

If you are interested in pursuing your certification with IIBA, consider our flagship program The Business Analyst Blueprint certification program, in which you can earn 36 PDs towards an IIBA certification. Bridging the Gap is an Endorsed Education Providers (EEPTM), and so your credits are guaranteed.

 

>>Learn More About Becoming a CBAP or CCBA

Interested in becoming a CBAP or CCBA? We cover 8 steps to the CBAP certification, that will take you to just learning about the certification to successfully sitting for the exam.

Click here to read the article

44 thoughts on “Are There Any Free Webinars That Offer PDs?”

  1. Ruby

    Hello sir, I have an IT software development experience of 5 years. But now I have a break from my career for the past 7 years. I am trying to enter as a business analyst after my career break and planning to take up ECBA. Should I do any paid course to account for the PD hours? I have the certified course materials shared by my friend. Can I just make use of these materials to learn and apply for the exam or should I individually pay to a provider to gain my PD hours?

    1. Laura Brandenburg

      Hi Ruby, In order to earn the PD hours you need to apply for your exam, you will need to take a training. The course does not have to be an exam prep course and you can still use self-study practices to prepare for the exam. It could be a more application-based offering like our program – The Business Analyst Blueprint certification program.

  2. Wendy

    Hi, I want to take an exam for CBAP certificate, which requires 35 hours of training. Could I train myself by self-learning rather than learn it from a professional training organization? Does self-learning count? Thank you very much!

    1. Aaron Whittenberger

      Hi Wendy, no, Professional Development Hours (PD Hours) cannot be earned as self-study. There are requirements for PD Hours for the CBAP certification, one of which is that it is instructor-led. You can take a professional development class from one of many education providers, including those that are Endorsed Education Providers (EEP) of IIBA; or take a CBAP Study Guide from an IIBA chapter: https://bluegrass.iiba.org/event-3676735

  3. Aditi Somvanshi

    I am a hospitality sales professional with 9 years of work experience. I have done Bachelors in Business Management. Can this experience be considered for CBAP certification. If not what the best route to get this certification.

    1. James

      Hey Aditi
      It’s better to start your BA career transition from a sales background with the entry certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA) from IIBA.

      It not only gives you a rock-solid foundation for getting into the BA profession but also helps you with a global certification by emphasizing on various areas of business analysis such as elicitation, requirements analysis, requirements life cycle management, etc. along with BABoK based BA techniques.
      ECBA has the backing of market recognition of IIBA hence the job opportunities it would bring in due to acceptance in the corporate segment.

      Please go through some of our ECBA students’ career transformation stories here:-
      https://www.adaptiveus.com/ecba-career-transformation-stories

      Adaptive US provided success guaranteed courses and will give you a solid backing and foundation as a BA beginning her career.

  4. Renukadevi P

    HI,
    Iam a registered member of IIBA. I would like to take up ECBA certification. Could you please guide me, how to account for self study PDUs in the website?

  5. Tania Sharma

    Hi Guys,

    I have done Business Analysis training for more than 21 hours but that was not accredited by IIBA endorsed education provider. Can i still use that in application? Will that add some uncertainty to get my application approved. Please suggest.

    Thanks

    1. Aaron Whittenberger

      Hi Tania, absolutely you may use a course that has not been endorsed by IIBA on your certification application as long as it aligns with the BABOK or Agile Extension to the BABOK. If IIBA finds that the course aligns with the BABOK or Agile Extension, your application will get approved.

  6. Praveen

    I would like to get re certification for CBAP. For which 60 CDU are mandatory and looking to get Formal Academic Education. Any training institute there in Bangalore (India) location to avail it.

    1. Aaron Whittenberger

      Praveen, I can’t tell you about education providers in Bangalore, but online courses will qualify for CDUs as well. There are many more things that qualify for CDUs to re-certify that qualify for PD Hours to get certified. You can read a business analysis book and count those hours as CDUs. Webinars count as CDUs https://thewittyba.blogspot.com/. For online training, check out Adaptive US https://adaptiveus.com/workshopcalendar/ and Bridging-the-Gap https://www.bridging-the-gap.com/business-analysis-training-courses/

  7. Nishant

    I am working in axis bank,I don’t have PD work experience,Total work experience is 3 years banking industry,now i want to move as business analyst, Can anyone help how can i complete ECBA course ?

  8. Aayush Jakhete

    Hello,
    Ive just got my membership and study the BABOK on my own. How do i get my PDU? I’m a little confused. Please help

  9. Pradeep

    Dear All,

    I need to gain 15 CDU from sel-directed learning for my CBAP re-certification. Could you please guide me on the webinars and materials to read to gain those CDU’s please.

    2. Sarah

      Hello Pradeep
      Please check out /https://www.adaptiveus.com/product/cbap-self-paced-learning/

      I have used it and found it to be good content.

      This will give you the needed PDs.

  10. Ann

    Avijit
    To gain PD hours without EEP you need to rely on the IIBA and other sources of free webinars.
    All the webinars of IIBA are counted for PD hours.
    But practically its a bit hard to go about collecting PDU for your course,
    For ECBA any self paced learning also will count for PDU.
    If your purpose is learning then it may be worth while spending money on a good course.
    Anything thats free or cheap may not impart great learning as well

    1. Laura Brandenburg

      Hi Ann, I totally agree that it is important to invest in your learning. However, it is a common misconception that you can earn free PDs through webinars, even those from IIBA. Webinars typically count for CDUs (for recertification), not PDs (for certification).

      Also, PDUs are relevant for PMI certifications, not IIBA ones.

  11. Avijit Pal

    How to log the webinar in PD in my profile for ECBA in IIBA website? Should I check the YES or NO in the “Is this an EEP endorsed course? *”. I am a newbie and cannot get any info in how to earn PD from attending webinars without EEP. Plz help.

    1. Aaron Whittenberger, CBAP

      Whether a particular webinar is endorsed should be noted in the webinar. If they are endorsed, they usually will tell you at the beginning or end of the webinar the endorsed course number and other information. If they do not provide that during the webinar you can look on the IIBA website to see if the webinar provider is and Endorsed Education Provider (EEP).

      http://www.iiba.org/Learning-Development/Endorsed-Education-Provider-Training.aspx

  12. Michael L

    I would also greatly appreciate any low cost virtual training which can provide the required 35 PDs. Any reference?

    1. Aaron Whittenberger, CBAP

      Both Laura and Adaptive Processes have given links to virtual training that qualifies for the 35 PD Hours needed to obtain IIBA certification earlier in these comments. You may also want to check with your local IIBA chapter to see if they are providing a CBAP / BABOK Study Group; as these will also qualify for PD Hours.

      1. Ann

        Hello Michael
        The IIBA requirement for PD hours for CBAP is clearly given in this link below:
        http://www.iiba.org/certification-handbook/professional-development-requirements.htm

        It has to be instructor led class.
        Now coming to cheap, we have usually seen lot of times students come to us after taking cheaper courses and failing and then coming to us.
        The training that you consider taking for the CBAP PD hours should not only be fulfilling the PD hours requirement, it should also help you in passing the exam, which is the end objective.

        If the training doesn’t ultimately help you in passing the exam then its of no use.
        For this objective to be fulfilled the trainer needs to be CBAP certified, got to have excellent knowledge of BABoK and CBAP.
        They should be helping you with application filing for CBAP,
        They should be preparing you well for the exam with good number of mock questions for CBAP. ( I would suggest a good mix of at least 1500 questions with full length CBAP simulators)
        Looking at CBAP v3 complexity and expectation the bar gets even higher, its unfair to expect a fair quality with a cheaper price.

        We have different plans for CBAP, which comes with success guarantee as well.
        You can take a look – https://adaptiveus.com/cbap/
        Hope this helps.
        Thanks
        Ann

  13. Abhinav Sriavstava

    Can anyone please suggest a virtual training which can provide 35 PDs at low cost? I am in Poland and the classroom programs are very expensive compared to when i was in India.

    1. Sarah

      Hello Abhi
      Please check out /https://www.adaptiveus.com/product/cbap-self-paced-learning/

      I have used it and found it to be good content.

      This will suffice your need.

  15. Ananya Pani

    LAURA I think the article is dated to before 2016 Oct when IIBA rolled out the new certification scheme. The CBAP requirement for PD got updated to 35 PD, and also ECBA requirement of 21 PD can be fulfilled from webinars etc same as CDU requirements for CBAP/CCBA.

    1. Aaron Whittenberger, CBAP

      Hi Ananya, you are correct the original article was pre-September 2016, so is dated information. CBAP does now require 35 PD Hours of training; however, PD Hours are different than CDUs needed for recertification. PD Hours are held to a stricter standard than CDUs. Webinars will qualify as CDUs, but not PD Hours. For a course to qualify for PD Hours it must be instructor led, and students must have interaction with the instructor and other students in the class. A simple Q&A session at the end of a webinar does not meet that standard. PD Hours must be training, virtual or classroom.

      1. Ananya Pani

        Hi Aaron for ECBA the PD hours can be fulfilled by webinars and does not require as strict standard as for CCBA and CBAP.
        Here is the content from IIBA site:

        What qualifies towards the Professional Development Requirement?

        ECBA professional development can consist of any of the following activities:

        Classroom and online courses (e.g. EEP endorsed courses )
        Webinars – live or recorded (e.g. IIBA Webinars)
        Conference track sessions, tutorials, keynotes & workshops
        Chapter events (i.e. presentations, study groups, workshops, conference days)
        Self -directed learning (i.e. reading/reviewing the BABOK® Guide v3.0)
        Important Note: The content of these professional development activities must be aligned with the BABOK® Guide v3.0.

        Link – http://www.iiba.org/Certification-Recognition/Certification-FAQs.aspx#level1pd

  17. Manisha Sharma

    Hello there,
    Nice article. I would like to appear for ECBA exam and am looking for 21 hours PD trainibg program. Virtual classes would suit me. Is the pricing and batches information availabke on any link?

    Kind regards,
    Manisha

  19. Jon

    Hi! I’m interested on BAMentor’s “Self-Paced CBAP Exam Prep”, however, when I check iiba.org website, i notice that BAMentor is “Classroom Education”. I’m assuming that only “Instructor-led CBAP Exam Prep” is recognized by IIBA to meet the CBAP application requirement of 21 Professional Development units. Is this assumption correct? Does this mean the “Self-Paced CBAP Exam Prep” of BAMentor cannot be use to satisfy the 21 Professional Development hours when applying for CBAP?

    1. AaronWhittenberger

      Jon, BAMentor’s Self-Paced CBAP Exam Prep course is listed on the IIBA website as an endorsed course. It is also listed on BAMentor’s website (www.thebamentor.com) as an endorsed course. Therefore, it will qualify for the 21 PD Hours necessary for IIBA certification.

  20. Tom Miller

    I like Aarons’ full explanation and it makes sense to me.
    “…
    Certificate in Project Management
    Free Demo Duration: 180 hours | 180 PDUs/18 CEUs
    Register by November 30, and you’ll also re
    …”

    It appears to be offering PDUs. So some providers are not making a clear distinction between PD’s and PDUs….

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