SEDA’s Professional Development Framework provides recognition for higher education institutions and organisations, accreditation for their professional development programmes and recognition for the individuals who complete those programmes.

It uses a range of named awards to accredit different types of professional development.


All named awards share a common set of values and core development outcomes and each named award has its own set of specialist outcomes.

Appropriate SEDA PDF awards have been aligned with their relevant UK professional development frameworks: the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) and Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework (RDF) .