Continuing Education

Requirements for Continuing Education (CE)

All CCHI certificants must complete continuing education to maintain their certification. By “continuing education (CE),” we mean learning in an instructor-led environment, including online self-paced modules, when such learning results in a document issued by an instructor, organization, organizer, etc. verifying completion of the activity (i.e., self-attestations are NOT accepted). The following activities are not accepted as CE by CCHI:

• actual interpreting or translating (i.e., performing your job),
• preparing for an assignment (any research or self-study that an interpreter would do to be ready to interpret in a new setting or on a new subject matter),
• self-study (e.g., reading a book, watching a YouTube video, etc. are NOT accepted as CE activities).

The continuing education requirement is 32 actual hours* (classroom or contact) during the four-year period for which the individual’s certification is valid. To ensure that certificants pursue continuing education in a consistent manner and with the goal to maintain or improve their job performance, the following conditions must be met regarding these 32 CE hours:

• The 32 CE hours must be completed with the current four-year certification cycle.
• Out of the 32 CE hours of every four-year cycle, a minimum of four (4) CE hours must be in performance based training which is defined as training aimed to improve the healthcare interpreter’s skills in the three interpreting modes – consecutive, simultaneous and sight translation. See the corresponding section on this page for more information.
  • CoreCHI-P certificants are required to complete a minimum of 1 performance-based (PB) CE hour in the LOTE of their verified proficiency(s) within the first year of the initial CoreCHI-P credential award (CoreCHI-P certificants of 2023 have to complete this requirement by November 1, 2024.)
• Effective Jan 30, 2018: Out of the 32 CE hours of every four-year cycle, a maximum of 8 CE hours may be earned as non-instructional CE activities. (These hours are optional, not required.) Non-instructional CE activities are defined as “activities that support the healthcare interpreting profession through volunteerism, leadership and research.” See the corresponding section below for more information.
• Effective May 1, 2019, the minimum duration of a CE activity is 30 minutes for general topics and 60 minutes for performance-based topics. Courses of lesser duration are not accepted by CCHI.
• Effective April 12, 2022, the maximum of CE credits that can be accepted for qualified written translation topics is increased to 8 (eight) CE hours per a four-year cycle.

Attention CoreCHI-P Certificants: Special PB Requirement

CCHI requires interpreters of spoken languages to complete the online Exercise in Language Proficiency Evaluation* to meet the 1-hour LOTE-specific training requirement. This Exercise is provided by CCHI free of charge at https://cchiinterpreters.org/. This Exercise consists of the following:

• Complete CCHI’s online self-paced course “Principles of Language Proficiency Evaluation.”
• Evaluate one audio response of a CoreCHI-P candidate of the same LOTE that was recorded during the ETOE exam. The candidate’s identity will not be provided for confidentiality reasons.
• If the certificant has not recorded a LOTE response on their ETOE exam for any reason, they will be required to complete such a recording prior to starting the Exercise. CCHI will provide specific instructions to such certificants.

* Details about the Exercise in Language Proficiency Evaluation are provided to certificants directly.

CoreCHI-P™ certificants who are ASL interpreters may meet this requirement by completing a minimum of 1 hour of a PB CE course in ASL from any training organization (out of 4 PB CE hours required, i.e., the other 3 PB CE hours may be language-neutral).

Requirements for Documenting Continuing Education (CE)

We accept a variety of documents (in a digital format – as pdf or jpg files) from certificants as evidence of CE as long as the documents comply with our requirements. The document must list the following information:

• Certificant’s name,
• The title (topic) or name of the educational event,
• The name of the training entity (organization or individual) delivering the course,
• The date(s) of the event,
• The number of actual hours attended, and
• The document must be signed by the event organizer or instructor.

Examples of Accepted Documents:

• Certificate of attendance or completion
• A program of a conference with the credential holder’s name and presenter’s signature (if signature is ineligible, presenter needs to write their name in brackets) next to the conference session
• A roster of attendees on the letterhead of the event organizer;
• A supervisor’s attestation on the employer’s/contractor’s letterhead;
• A printout of the internal electronic system which has the credential holder’s and event’s identifying information (timestamp, etc.);
• CCHI’s Template for Documentation of Continuing Education at a single workshop (click here to download).
• CCHI’s Template for Documentation of CE at a multi-session event (click here to download).

Certificants who are trainers/instructors must provide the following types of documentation as proof of CE.

1. Proof of training delivery – any publicity material (flyer, ad, brochure, conference schedule, etc.) about their training which lists the following information:

• Credential holder’s name and designation as instructor/presenter/trainer.
• The title (topic) or name of the educational event.
• The name of the training entity (organization or individual) delivering the course,
• The date(s) of the event.
• The number of actual contact hours of the event.

2. Proof of training experience (e.g., Curriculum Vitae, personal or advisor’s attestation) specifying delivery of any combination of academic and non-academic (conferences, workshops, in-service).

• 40 hours of training interpreters (any setting, including basic/beginner level training).
• 40 hours of other training (e.g., language instructor at school or college, cultural competence trainer, instructor of nursing).

If a certificant is a trainer or instructor and is asking for CE credits for training they deliver, they must meet the following requirements:

1. The training must qualify as CE (i.e. be beyond beginner-level complexity; basic/introductory courses or courses preparing for certification are not accepted);
2. The training must follow the same subject guidelines as for the training attendees/recipients (See the Renewal Process webpage for details).

We recommend that each certificant develops a personal CE plan to target the areas of knowledge and performance in which they need improvement. Certificants are not allowed to take the same CE course within the same four-year cycle (“same” means the course with the same title, delivered by the same instructor(s), and of the same duration as the course submitted for CE credit in this four-year cycle).

We accept various types of continuing education programs that are delivered at any venue – classroom, online (as webinars or online training modules), conference sessions, or workshops.

*1 CE hour = 60 minutes of instruction, i.e. one instructional hour.  Instructional hours do not include lunch, other breaks, assessment or administrative comments (e.g. welcome, overview, conclusion, evaluation, etc.).

Important:

CCHI guarantees acceptance of appropriately furnished proof of CE only for CEAP-accredited CE courses because such courses have undergone a thorough review process and meet CCHI’s renewal criteria. However, CCHI does not require that certificants complete only CEAP-accredited CE courses.

CCHI will accept all CE courses that meet CCHI’s requirements for continuing education as described by CCHI as long as sufficient information for the evaluation is provided by the certificant. It is the responsibility of the certificant to provide information about a CE course that is sufficient for CCHI to make an evaluation as to whether the course meets CCHI’s CE requirements. The information needed for the evaluation may include, but is not limited to, the course description, agenda, syllabus, student handouts, etc.

This information may be required in addition to the document verifying the certificant’s completion of the course (i.e. certificate of attendance/completion, badge, etc.), especially if the title of the course does not indicate a specific subject matter or the level of complexity (i.e. continuing education vs. beginner-level/basic training).