Occupational therapy practitioners are eager to share their expertise through webinars, workshops, summits, or in-person events. You’ve learned what impacts your clients and want to help others provide up-to-date, evidence-based care that works as well. Organizations and corporations are also often interested in offering AOTA Approved CEUs for summits or PD activities. You know OTs want and need CEUs to maintain their credentials. However, becoming an AOTA Approved Provider so you can offer approved CEUs is time-consuming and costly. Fortunately, there’s a practical alternative to becoming an AOTA Approved Provider yourself — it’s called Co-Sponsorship from an AOTA Approved Sponsor.
In this article we’ll cover:
- What co-sponsorship is and how it allows you to offer CEUs without becoming an approved provider
- An overview of how to become an AOTA Approved Provider so you can understand your options
- A comparison of co-sponsorship vs becoming an approved provider to help you choose which one is best for your business
Co-sponsorship or becoming an AOTA Approved Provider… either way, we’d like nothing more than to see more high-quality education created by occupational therapy practitioners and for occupational therapy practitioners.
Aspire OT is an established AOTA Approved Provider with an in-depth understanding of the requirements and processes involved in awarding CEUs for workshops, webinars, and events. We are also an Approved Sponsor, which means we can award CEUs for an event you create. (Becoming an Approved Sponsor is an additional process beyond becoming an Approved Provider.) By partnering with us, you gain access to our experience and expertise, allowing you to offer CEUs without the hassle of navigating the approval process on your own.
What is Co-Sponsorship?
Co-sponsorship is a partnership between an existing AOTA Approved Sponsor and a company that isn’t an approved provider. The AOTA Approved Sponsor, in this case, Aspire OT, takes on the responsibility of maintaining approvals, handling the administrative burden, and ensuring compliance.
Aspire OT maintains records, pays a fee, and submits a report to AOTA each year to remain in good standing and continue to offer co-sponsorship services. It’s a *bit* like how a licensed OT or OTA works with a student. The licensed therapist is ultimately responsible for compliance and oversight even though the student is providing the treatment.
When you engage in co-sponsorship with an Approved Sponsor, you can award CEUs to participants who attend your workshop/webinar/event without becoming an approved provider yourself.
How Aspire OT Partners in Offering CEUs
As an Approved Sponsor, we will work with you to ensure your workshop/event meets the guidelines and criteria set by the AOTA Approved Sponsor Program. Your event must be relevant to the practice of occupational therapy, evidence-informed, and aligned with best practice. We know the guidelines and criteria well and will guide you to make necessary adjustments if needed.
We can assign AOTA CEUs to live professional development activities or live continuing education events that provide education for OT practitioners. This includes conferences, summits, workshops, webinars, and trainings.
Note: AOTA does not allow us to assign CEUs for any pre-recorded events.
The first step is to send us a quick email so we can learn more about your event! (Click here to send the email) If your event is eligible, we’ll send you a proposal that outlines your responsibilities and our responsibilities to ensure the event meets all of the AOTA Approved Sponsor Program guidelines and our co-sponsorship relationship is successful. We will answer your questions and guide you throughout the process as well.
Advantages of OT CEU Co-Sponsorship
- Avoid the lengthy process of becoming an AOTA Approved Provider
- Gain support from experienced professionals
- Offer CEUs for your event sooner
Co-sponsorship allows you to focus on what you do best—creating and delivering high-quality educational trainings and events while Aspire OT manages the complex compliance aspects.
"Traditionally, certifying a CEU with AOTA was a long and complicated process. Working with Aspire OT was an absolute game-changer. They made the process easy and efficient. Kim and Niccole were genuinely delightful people to work with.
We are so appreciative of this partnership and will definitely be using them again."
Kristin Custer, QLI
Most organizations who consider co-sponsorship are also curious about becoming an AOTA Approved Provider themselves. We’ll provide a high-level overview of the approval process here, but we encourage you to visit the
AOTA Approved Provider website page for the most up-to-date information and details.
Overview of the Process to Become an AOTA Approved Provider
First, you’ll submit a Recognition as an AOTA Approved Provider Application. This helps AOTA verify that you have demonstrated the ability to comply with required systems, policies, procedures, and educational practices appropriate for OTPs in a manner that meets their criteria and guidelines.
If you’re approved, recognition is granted for a period of 7 years, but to remain in good standing, you must pay an annual fee. (If you’re not approved, the reasons for denial will be provided in writing. It’s also important to know that you may only submit a clarification for the application on one occasion or you’ll incur additional charges from AOTA.)
The guidelines to become an approved provider aren’t just about the content you want to teach. They also include having a well-defined organizational structure, clear responsibility for administering PD activities, and a mission statement that includes providing excellent professional education.
You also need to demonstrate your systems and ability to provide program oversight, identifying learners who meet requirements for satisfactory completion of a learning activity, awarding CEUs, maintaining records, disclosing financial and non-financial interests, plan learning activities in response to needs in the OT field, use relevant and updated evidence, identify learning outcomes, provide post-evaluations and more.
You must have a plan to embed DEI principles into PD activities and accommodate diverse learning needs or accessibility requests as well. As much as we’d like to think every learner will be happy with our professional development events, you still must have a system in place to receive and address complaints.
Remember, this is only a high-level overview of the requirements to become an AOTA Approved Provider. All the details are on
this webpage.
The Fees Involved in Becoming an AOTA Approved Provider
Since AOTA oversees the Approved Provider program and monitors the integrity of approved education, there are fees associated with applying and maintaining the Approved Provider status.
Note: Fees are subject to change, so always check the AOTA website for the most up-to-date information. The fee for the application depends on how many professional development activities you plan to have each year. The approved provider application fee currently ranges from $625 - $2125.
Then, each PD Activity Application fee is $75.
Annual fees (after the first year) range based on how many PD activities you plan to have. The range for these fees is $375 - $1325.
There are also additional fees if you submit reports late or apply to change your scope.
We often hear from organizations who end up partnering with us for co-sponsorship that the AOTA Approved Provider process felt daunting, especially if providing OT CEUs isn’t their primary mission. When they weighed the options and evaluated their long-term goals, it simply made sense to partner with a current Approved Sponsor rather than applying to become an AOTA Approved Provider and maintaining this status themselves.
This is a lot of information to process as you make this business decision. That’s why we’ve summarized the information below so you can easily compare your options and make the choice that’s right for your organization at this time.
Armed with all the above information, there may be one question still in your mind…
There truly is no “wrong” decision when you’re considering becoming an AOTA Approved Provider or partnering with Aspire OT through co-sponsorship.
However, like any business decision, you want to choose the best option for both short-term and long-term benefits while minimizing the time and money you invest.
The end result is being able to offer CEUs to the occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants who attend your professional development activity, webinar, or workshop. You and event attendees will also have confirmation that the education you’re providing is relevant to occupational therapy, evidence backed, and aligned with current standards of practice.
Our goal at Aspire OT is to help you share your knowledge and impact the lives of other occupational therapy practitioners, and by extension, their clients. That’s the true value of offering CEUs, and it’s a goal worth pursuing in whatever way makes the most sense for your business.
Once we confirm your event is eligible, we’ll send you a proposal that outlines your responsibilities and our responsibilities.
You can also read more about co-sponsorship for occupational therapy CEU approval
HERE.