Architecture & Engineering CPD
Digital CPD certificates for architects, engineers & AEC professionals
CPD is the credential layer of an architect's or engineer's career. Hours have to be logged, evidence has to be kept, and an audit can arrive at any time. TRUE Original turns each CPD record into a tamper-proof digital document that anyone can verify in seconds, issued under your brand, on your domain, anchored on blockchain.
TL;DR
A digital CPD certificate from TRUE records a completed learning activity as a document that verifies itself. The course title, the hours, the recipient, the issuer and the date are fixed at issue and anchored on a blockchain, so a registration body, a client or an employer can confirm the record by scanning a QR code instead of writing to your office. It carries your branding and sits on your own domain, and it keeps verifying after the member changes practice. AEC firms, professional associations and training providers issue this way through the dashboard, through an LMS integration or through a five endpoint API.
- Audit ready: course, hours, recipient, issuer and date fixed at issue and verifiable on demand.
- Portable: the record survives a change of employer, LMS or HR system.
- Yours: branded, on your domain, so every share points back to you.
Who issues CPD certificates with TRUE?
The organisations that train and certify the AEC profession. If your learners need CPD evidence they can put in front of a registration body, an employer or a client, TRUE issues that evidence in a form the other side can check without asking you.
AEC firms
Running internal CPD for architects, engineers, project managers and BIM specialists, with one record of who is trained on what.
Professional associations
Accrediting CPD hours for members with a clean audit trail, on a credential that carries the association's own identity rather than a platform's.
AEC training providers
Delivering BIM, sustainability, building safety, structural and code update courses, issuing a branded certificate the moment a course is completed.
In-house academies
At large engineering, design and construction groups, issuing consistently across teams and offices from one dashboard.
How much CPD do architects and engineers have to evidence?
Enough that the record keeping is the real burden rather than the learning. UK architects who are RIBA Chartered Members owe 35 hours a year with 20 of them fixed to a mandatory curriculum, and Engineering Council registrants can be asked for their CPD record in an annual sample and removed from the register if they keep failing to produce it. Both schemes are satisfied by evidence, which means the quality of the document decides how painful the audit is.
- 35 hours of CPD a year, with at least 20 of them on the ten mandatory Core Curriculum topics, for RIBA Chartered Members, who must also record what they did. Source: RIBA CPD.
- Licensed professional engineering institutions run an annual audit on a sample of registrants' CPD records, and registrants who persistently fail to engage with those requests risk removal from the register. Source: Engineering Council, the UK regulator for the engineering profession.
- 45% of large employers have uncovered a false qualification claim, and only 52% verify every academic credential they are shown. Source: Prospects Luminate, November 2025, from a YouGov survey of 526 HR decision makers.
A member who is picked for a sample audit has to produce evidence for a year of activity, often from several providers. A verification URL per activity turns that from an archaeology exercise into a list of links.
Why issue CPD digitally rather than as a PDF?
Because a PDF certificate cannot answer the question an auditor is asking. It can be edited in a browser, its signature is a picture of a signature, and a spreadsheet of completions beside it is a claim rather than a proof. A blockchain anchored document answers with evidence that does not depend on anyone believing the file.
Tamper evident
The hash is written at issue, so the certificate an auditor opens years later is provably the one that was issued, or the check fails and says so.
Verifiable without you
A QR code or a verification URL settles authenticity with no email chain back to your team, whether the recipient is still with your firm or has moved on twice.
Branded and yours
The certificate lives on your practice's or association's own domain. Every share and every verification is a visit to you.
Worth sharing
Animated interactive documents get posted to LinkedIn and attached to tenders, and you can see when they are opened, shared and verified.
Which AEC subjects does this cover?
All of them, because TRUE treats every CPD activity as the same document type regardless of subject. The four areas below are where AEC issuers start most often.
BIM and digital delivery
BIM authoring, ISO 19650 information management, common data environment training and software specific CPD. Recipients can prove competence to a project lead or a client on day one.
Sustainability and net zero
Embodied and whole life carbon, LEED, BREEAM, Passivhaus and energy modelling. As sustainability requirements harden, verifiable CPD evidence becomes part of the bid pack.
Building safety and fire
Competence frameworks, fire safety design, facade inspection and structural safety. When a regulator or an insurer asks who is competent on a project, the answer is a link.
Ethics, regulation and code updates
Professional ethics, anti-bribery, planning law refreshers and building regulation updates. Short modules add up to a large number of certificates, which is where automation pays back fastest.
What does a TRUE CPD certificate do that a PDF cannot?
Eight things, and each of them shows up during an audit or a tender rather than on the day of issue. The table sets them side by side.
| Capability | PDF CPD certificate | TRUE CPD certificate |
|---|---|---|
| Tamper evidence | Editable in any PDF tool | Blockchain anchored and immutable |
| Registration body audit | Manual reconciliation | QR code or URL, settled in seconds |
| Bid pack evidence | An email chain to find the files | Permanent verifiable links |
| LMS integration | Manual export | Canvas, Moodle, Learnster and a REST API |
| Sharing on LinkedIn | A static image | One click to add to a profile |
| Lives on your domain | No domain at all | Yes, a branded URL on your own domain |
| Revocation and reissue | A new email, and the old file still circulates | The old version stops verifying immediately |
| Long-term verifiability | Files lost when members change employer | Verifiable on chain regardless |
What does this give a professional association?
A way to make the standard visible. An association exists to protect a threshold of competence, and the certificate is where a member, a client and a regulator all meet that threshold. Putting it on the association's own domain means the recognition accrues where it belongs.
Issue at member scale
More than 500,000 documents have been issued across TRUE's customer base, for over 200 organisations in 15 or more countries. Bulk issuing runs through the dashboard or the API.
Brand every document
Certificates sit on the association's own domain, so a member sharing one sends traffic and recognition to the association.
Give members a portable record
Members can link their CPD from a portfolio, a tender or a LinkedIn profile, and the link keeps working after they change firm.
Cut verification overhead
Third parties check a member's CPD themselves rather than emailing your staff, because the verification URL needs nobody's cooperation.
What does this give an AEC firm?
One place where CPD evidence lives instead of four. Inside most practices the record is spread across LMS exports, HR systems and personal email folders, which is fine until a client audit or a registration body query arrives and somebody has to assemble it by hand.
Automate issuing
Issue through the REST API or by sending a structured email, with five endpoints covering issuing, revocation and bulk operations. For a rollout sequence, see the guide on how to implement digital credentials.
Connect your LMS
Native integrations with Canvas, Moodle and Learnster mean finishing a course in the LMS issues the TRUE document with no manual step.
One source of truth
A single record of who is trained on what, ready for a client audit, a tender response or a registration body query without searching inboxes.
Reissue or revoke
Supersede a course or expire a credential and the old version stops verifying, with no new email chain to chase.
Skanska
“This is absolutely brilliant! A thousand thank you’s!!”
Branschutbildarna
Construction sector training providers such as Branschutbildarna already issue construction safety training certificates with TRUE. The same engine issues licensed professional CPD.
How much has TRUE issued so far?
TRUE's own platform figures, not third party research.
500K+documents secured
200+organisations issuing
15+countries
What do AEC issuers ask about digital CPD certificates?
The questions below come up most often from firms, training providers and professional associations evaluating digital CPD.
Does TRUE satisfy the CPD requirements of bodies such as RIBA, the Engineering Council or Sveriges Arkitekter?
Each registration body sets its own rules for what counts as CPD evidence, and TRUE does not make claims on behalf of any of them. What TRUE provides is the document layer: a tamper-proof, branded, verifiable record carrying the course title, the hours, the recipient, the issuer, the date and a permanent record of issuing, which is the data those schemes ask members to keep. The CPD framework stays yours.
Can certificates carry our practice's or association's branding?
Yes. Documents are served from your own domain with your design, colours and logo, so recipients and verifiers see your brand rather than a platform's.
Can we connect TRUE to our existing LMS?
Yes. TRUE integrates directly with Canvas, Moodle and Learnster, and has a REST API with five endpoints for anything else. Completing a course in the LMS can issue the document automatically.
Can we issue at the volume of a national association?
Yes. TRUE has issued more than 500,000 documents for over 200 organisations across 15 or more countries, and supports bulk issuing through the dashboard or the API.
Will a certificate still verify years later if the member changes employer?
Yes. Each document is anchored on a blockchain and verifies through its QR code or verification URL, independent of any LMS or HR system the member happens to be inside at the time.
How does this sit with GDPR?
TRUE is a Swedish company built for the European market. Data handling is designed around EU rules, and TRUE is eIDAS compliant and Cyber Hygiene Certified by OneMore Secure.
What do TRUE customers say?
“A clear advantage of our new digital certificates is how easily they can be added as a reference to LinkedIn or a digital CV. The ease of use and verifiability creates trust!”
“Thanks TRUE! Incredible to work with you to realise our fully accredited NED Academy Certificates!”
See it on your own CPD programme
The quickest way to judge the difference is to see one of your own course titles issued as a TRUE document, branded, verifiable and on your own domain.