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Continuing education

CEU vs Contact Hours

CEUs and contact hours are related measures, but they are not the same number: one IACET CEU corresponds to ten contact hours.

Reviewed 19 August 20261 primary/official source linked

Contact hours measure time; CEUs package that time into a continuing-education unit. Under the IACET definition used here, 10 contact hours equal 1 CEU.

The arithmetic

Divide contact hours by 10 to express them as CEUs, or multiply CEUs by 10 to recover contact hours. For example, 3 contact hours is 0.3 CEU under this definition.

Why the labels still matter

A certificate may report contact hours, CEUs, or another credit type. Do not rewrite the certificate just because the time conversion is easy; keep the original unit in your records.

Acceptance is a separate decision

A credential program may accept an activity, cap it, reject it, or define its own credit system. Time conversion and credit eligibility are different questions.

Sources and verification

Source checked August 19, 2026IACET — Continuing Education Unit

Defines one CEU as ten contact hours of participation in an organized continuing-education experience.

Open official/current source ↗
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