NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT COUNSELING ASSOCIATION
Continuing Education Committee
NECA is an approved provider of Continuing Education Units under the auspices of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). Any member of NECA may request CEU approval of an event by submitting to the NECA CEU Chairperson, a copy of the Event Program with clearly defined time periods.
The Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is designed as a uniform unit of measurement to facilitate the accumulation and exchange of standardized information about individual participation in non-credit continuing education. One Continuing Education Unit is defined as: "ten contact hours of participation, in an organized continuing education experience, under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction." This definition was taken from the handbook entitled "The Continuing Education Unit Criteria and Guidelines," written by the National Task Force on the Continuing Education Unit.
The Council on the Continuing Education Unit was incorporated in l977 by members of the National Task Force on CEU. The Council was organized to place the monitoring, refining, and future guidance of CEU activities in a self-renewing nonprofit organization led by persons active in a wide spectrum of life- long learning activities. NECA strictly follows the Council's criteria and guidelines.
CEUs provide the opportunity for individuals to have recognition of their efforts to update or broaden their occupational knowledge, skills, or attitudes. Records of CEUs successfully completed provide a framework within which individuals can develop and achieve long-range educational goals through a variety of educational options. Having readily available permanent records permits individuals to maintain and transmit to others, a record of their life-long occupationally related learning experiences. The most common uses of a CEU record or transcript by an individual are to supply an employer or prospective employer with information on continuing education and training experiences pertinent to an occupational competence; and to provide documentation to registration boards, certification bodies, or professional and occupational societies, of continuing education undertaken to maintain or increase professional competence. Many companies and organizations now include copies of CEU transcripts in employees'/members' personnel files for use when personnel evaluation, promotion, and/or professional organization membership status are being considered. And, of course, the requirements for registration, recertification, and renewal of a license has become a way of life for many professional, occupational, and paraprofessional groups.
Examples of activities that do not qualify for CEUs include:
- Association Membership and Certification Programs - Non- educational activities of professional, occupational, or other organizations that otherwise may be used to qualify for professional and occupational membership or certification.
- In-Service Training Programs - Instructional activities that relate only to the procedures and policies of one organization are not appropriate for awarding CEUs. Instruction applicable to the professional or occupational field, and has value wherever the individual may be employed, is appropriate for the awarding of CEUs (if it meets CEU criteria).
Committee Work - Committee meetings, activities, and assignments are not appropriate for the awarding of CEUs.
- Credit Programs - CEUs and academic credit, for secondary or post- secondary courses and programs, may not be awarded simultaneously. There is no relationship between CEUs and academic credit. Academic credit applies specifically to certificate/degree requirements and CEUs are not awarded for that purpose.
- Entertainment and Recreation - Attendance at cultural performances, entertainment, recreational meetings, or participation in travel groups.
- High-school Equivalency - Programs leading to high-school equivalency certificates or diplomas.
- Individual Scholarship - Independent writing or the presentation of papers outside of a planned, directly supervised continuing education experience that fulfills CEU criteria.
- Mass Media Program - Programs delivered through the media (e.g., television, radio, newspaper) do not qualify for CEUs, unless these activities are an integral part of a planned continuing education experience that qualifies under CEU criteria.
- Conferences and Conventions - Meetings, conferences, and conventions of professional/occupational organizations do not automatically qualify as continuing education experiences. However, specifically organized courses, workshops or seminars held in conjunction with meetings, conferences, or conventions may qualify for CEUs when the CEU criteria are met.
- Instructing - Instructing or leading a continuing education experience for which CEUs are awarded is not an appropriate activity for the awarding of CEUs. (However, NBCC may grant credit for research involved with making a presentation & NJCA will provide upon request, to any presenter,, official documentation of any presentation made at an official NJCA event.)
- Work Experience - On-the-job training and other work experiences do not qualify for CEUs unless the experience is offered according to CEU criteria. CEUs are not awarded for prior life/work experiences.
