Gold Seal accreditation rule (effective June 1, 2024): only Gold Seal accredited courses count toward GSC and P.GSC applications (safety training exempt)

Claim: Effective June 1, 2024, only Gold Seal accredited courses count toward GSC and P.GSC applications. Safety training is exempt and accepted by hours (not credits).

Source: cca-acc.com/gold-seal/accreditation-program/.

Confidence: Verified.

What this changes

Before June 1, 2024, a wider range of construction-management courses (some unaccredited PM training, university construction courses) could count toward the 25-credit education minimum. After June 1, 2024, the candidate has to use the accredited course list maintained by CCA.

Practical effect: candidates must plan course work around the CCA accredited list, which is heavily populated by:

• Local construction-association courses (TCA / TCIC, OGCA, GVCA, OCA — see Gold Seal governance: CCA owns and administers nationally; Ontario partners (OGCA, TCA/TCIC, OCA, GVCA, HHCA, ORBA, LDCA) deliver training and promote)
• CCA national courses
• A growing list of college / continuing-ed providers whose courses CCA has accredited

Course accreditation fees (effective Jan 1, 2026 — significant increase)

Source: cca-acc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/New-Gold-Seal-fees.pdf.

The accreditation-fee multiplier (8× for institutions) is one of the larger fee jumps in the program — worth flagging when advising a client whose internal training department has been seeking accreditation.

Why this matters for Candid use

When auditing a client's professional-development planning:

1. Confirm every course in the candidate's plan is currently on the CCA accredited list (not just historically accredited).
2. Plan around the 4-times-a-year exam cycle (see Gold Seal exam: multiple-choice online, 150–180 questions, 3–3.5 hours, 70% pass mark, 4 sittings/year (Mar/Jun/Sep/Nov), unlimited rewrites at $150 each).
3. If the client runs their own internal training, the Jan 2026 fee increases make accreditation materially more expensive — bundle this into the marketing-side recommendation rather than treating it as an HR-side problem.