PD Consortium Inc.
We have formed and run CPD consortia for 37 years
PD Consortium began as a live seminar series for accountants in Toronto and moved online, where it has stayed. Our longest-running consortium has met every year since 1989. We are forming further consortia in Ontario now.
The record
More than nine in ten member firms come back
Our established Ontario consortium holds 23 firms, several of them since it began. Membership runs a year at a time, so each programme earns the next one on its own merits.
- 1989
- Delivering since
- 270+
- Courses delivered
- 6,000+
- Professionals accredited by CPA Ontario
- 95%+
- Of member firms renew each year
What we hold to
Five commitments that govern every programme
- Live courses keep senior practitioners available for questions
- A presenter who can be questioned in the room is the substance of a programme. Recordings cover absences, while the live course remains at the centre of the programme.
- Planning, compliance and reporting remain with us
- A member firm supplies its requirements and roster. We design the curriculum, conduct the programme and maintain the records around them.
- Shared cost raises the standard
- Pooling a programme across firms puts a specialist in front of a four-person practice. That is the entire reason a consortium exists, and it is why we would rather place a small firm than decline it.
- Attendance records remain fair and correctable
- Participation is human and imperfect. Records reflect that honestly and remain open to review, because their purpose is evidence rather than enforcement.
- Renewals are earned annually
- Membership runs a year at a time. Retention matters to us more than any single placement, which is the discipline that keeps a programme worth re-booking.
Who runs it
A member firm deals with three roles
Judgement about what a practice should be covering sits with a named curriculum lead. Commercial terms and reporting sit with programme direction. The teaching sits with practising specialists commissioned for their subject.
Behind all three, Attendell provides the delivery platform, session operations and attendance reporting, on systems running live programmes today. A firm has a named person who knows its practice, and an organisation behind that person substantial enough that a programme never rests on one diary.
- Programme direction
- Holds the commercial terms, the delivery schedule and the reporting a firm receives. This is who a managing partner deals with on the arrangement itself.
- The curriculum lead
- Decides what a practice needs to cover this year, designs each programme around what the consortium asks for, and selects and briefs the presenters. The scarce role, and the reason a new consortium is viable at all.
- Presenters
- Practising specialists commissioned for particular subjects, most of whom return season after season. Appointments rather than suppliers, which is the part a catalogue cannot reproduce.
Working with Attendell
Curation sits with us, delivery sits with Attendell
PD Consortium forms the consortium, designs the curriculum, commissions the presenters and holds the relationship with your firm. Attendell, a professional development provider, conducts the sessions, reconciles attendance and produces the reporting your firm receives.
The division has held for years, and it reflects two different disciplines: judging what a practice needs to cover is separate work from running sessions and reconciling records for several hundred people.
The details
- Entity
- PD Consortium Inc., registered in Ontario
- Consortia
- One established in Ontario holding 23 firms, with further groups forming
- Delivery
- Attendell, attendell.com
- Requirements
- Set and audited by CPA Ontario
Talk to us about the coming season
Fifteen minutes is usually enough. Tell us how many people at your firm carry the obligation and which areas matter most, and we will come back with the shape of a season and a price per person.
Or email admin@pdconsortium.com with your firm and headcount, or call +1 (416) 306-2072.