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CPD is missing the target, says ACCA

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24th Feb 2009
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Struggling with your CPD programme? You’re not the only one, according to new research by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Gina Dyer reports

The body’s latest CPD Benchmarking Report shows that although demand for professional development programmes is growing, they are not as widely available as expected and are often not being implemented or monitored in the correct way.

ACCA’s survey found that almost one in five firms only offers professional development opportunities to qualified accountants, and a third of companies continue to restrict their professional development policies to finance staff based at head office only.

The report also found that where programmes were being implemented, less than a third submitted to formal external benchmarking and 20% of companies were not recording the effectiveness of the training undertaken.

Regular AccountingWEB contributor Nigel Harris of Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers Burton Sweet says: “I think the ACCA are right. There was a move towards much more qualitative, subjective training planning for CPD a few years ago but many accountants still just clock up their required hours without having any proper plan or strategy”.

Despite increasing financial pressure on firms to cut costs, the majority of organisations (60%) said they had seen an increase in CPD budget over the last three years, although the impact of the growing economic downturn is not yet fully known.

“Although the level of financial resources being allocated to professional development programmes does not appear to be diminishing, investment returns are likely to suffer unless better practices are adopted. This is made more critical given the context of the economic climate and pressure on organisations’ operating costs”, said Jamie Lyon, senior manager of professional development at ACCA.

For details of hundreds of training courses ranging from tax to managment skills and technology, visit CPDzone.co.uk.
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By StuartWarner
11th Nov 2009 18:49

Targeted CPD without breaking the budget

Having worked in the training market for over 12 years and the CPD market in particular since 2004, I certainly agree with many of the comments made in this article.

It can be difficult for ACCA qualified accountants who want to undertake relevant CPD but don't receive the financial support from their employer as discussed above.

Financial Fluency offers a wide range of online CPD courses which have been developed to meet the needs of a wide range of finance professionals. Each course has defined learning outcomes and enables learners to set relevant action points which meet the requirements of structured CPD.

If you want targeted CPD and/or if you're on a budget it's definitely worth having a look. Unlike a face-to-face course Financial Fluency's e-learning courses can be taken at a pace to suit the learner and learners can spend more time on the bits that mean the most to them.

If you want to know more let me know or have a look at the financial fluency website

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