Professional Development and Retraining for Doctors in Kazakhstan: The Difference and What Each Category Requires
Conferences alone cannot meet the CPD norm: of 210 credits, between 60 and 150 must be professional development cycle hours. How professional development differs from retraining, how many hours each category needs, and what length of service is required.
You cannot meet the CPD norm with conferences alone. Of the 210 credits required over five years, between 60 and 150 must be hours of a professional development cycle — and the exact figure depends on which qualification category you are going for. This is a separate requirement rather than a share of the total, and it is where most people trip.
Below: how professional development differs from retraining and from CPD itself, how many hours each category requires, and what length of service is needed.
Terminology note: the Russian text of the CPD regulation uses "зачётная единица" (ЗЕ) and the Kazakh text uses "сынақ бірлігі" (СБ). Both are Kazakhstan's local names for what international practice calls a CPD credit. We use "credit" throughout.
Three concepts that are constantly confused
CPD (continuous professional development) is an accounting system. Not a course and not a document, but a way of summing everything you have done over five years into a single credit total. The final CPD result is made up of three parts: additional education, non-formal education, and additional competencies (clause 9 of the Rules).
Professional development (повышение квалификации) is a training cycle in your specialty, filed under "additional education" within the CPD system. The calculation is simple: 1 hour = 1 credit. Confirmed by a copy of the professional development completion certificate.
Retraining (переподготовка) is postgraduate education, on a par with clinical residency. It belongs not to CPD accounting but to obtaining a qualification level: in the sectoral qualifications framework these are the 7.x(R) levels. Retraining changes your specialty; professional development deepens the one you have.
The practical difference: you accumulate professional development hours continuously and present them every five years, whereas retraining is completed once, when changing specialty.
How many professional development hours each category requires
This is where the real subtlety sits. The overall 210-credit figure is not the only requirement. Inside it there are two mandatory floors, and they differ by category:
| Category | Total CPD | Of which professional development | Non-formal education and additional competencies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second | at least 210 credits / 5 years | at least 150 credits (hours) at basic or intermediate level | at least 60 credits |
| First | at least 210 credits / 5 years | at least 120 credits (hours) at intermediate or advanced level | at least 90 credits |
| Highest | at least 210 credits / 5 years | at least 60 credits (hours) at advanced or specialized level | at least 150 credits |
Source: Annex 3 to the Rules.
The table makes the progression logic visible: the higher the category, the less classroom time is required and the more of your own professional activity. The second category calls for 150 hours of courses and only 60 credits of everything else. The highest category inverts it: 60 hours of courses, but 150 credits of conferences, publications, mentoring and expert work.
Why conferences cannot cover it all
The temptation is understandable: three days at an international congress is 120 credits, more than half the five-year norm. But congresses fall under the "additional competencies" chapter, while a professional development cycle falls under "additional education". These are separate lines, and the professional development floor is not met by the former.
The practical conclusion: for the second category, 150 of the 210 credits must be cycle hours, and at most 60 can be topped up with conferences and everything else. Room to manoeuvre only opens up toward the highest category.
Check your plan against two numbers, not one total.
Length of service required
Beyond credits, there is a requirement for continuous service in the declared specialty counted from the date the previous qualification level was obtained:
| Category | Service required |
|---|---|
| Second | at least 5 years |
| First | at least 4 years |
| Highest | at least 3 years |
The requirement is identical across all education levels — technical and vocational, post-secondary, higher, and postgraduate (Annex 5 to the Rules).
An alternative route instead of 210 credits
The Rules contain a fork that few people know about. The overall CPD requirement is worded as "at least 210 credits over 5 years or participation in the Independent Expert Commission in insurance-case review at least 3 times in the last 3 years".
Separately, participation in such a commission is valued at 90 credits per document — one of the heaviest single entries in the entire tariff.
What the documents must show
For a professional development cycle the Rules require a copy of the completion certificate, and the criterion itself sets three conditions:
- match with the profile of the declared specialty;
- match with the level of the educational programme (basic, intermediate, advanced, specialized);
- indication of the number of hours or credits.
Programme level matters: the first category counts professional development at intermediate or advanced level, and basic-level hours will not go toward that floor. Confirm the programme level before enrolling in a cycle, not after.
This material is for reference only. The current version of the Rules and annexes is published at adilet.zan.kz. Requirements may change: the order was amended in 2024 and 2025.
