Your Solutions for Improved Work Quality

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Accountancy exams are a distraction from quality in real life work. There is only so much energy and time put in to assessing alternative candidates for various responsibilities.

Given the problems in the world of Financial Reporting, the domain of examinations is cultivating the growth and extension of bad quality work in the office.

The emphasis in the domain of exams is at odds with that of real accountancy work, it takes emphasis away from the goal of accountants in the workplace, namely, quality, and puts it on volume/quantity instead, which would not be so much of a problem if the required level of quality was not so low.

 

Real work does need to be done within time limits, but if an accountant was producing work that was 70% correct, and this is frequently the examination pass mark, then the consequences of this would often be highly adverse for his employer/ colleagues. I don't know about anyone else, and I look forward to reading your views, but I would always want a colleague to ensure that their work, where possible, was correct before leaving it indefinitely, even when it means them spending more time on it, otherwise indicate that they want assistance or direction to relevant technical literature.

 

Attention and emphasis need to be directed to quality of real-life work in order to distinguish varying levels between employees, departments, organisations etc, highlighing the problems that they pose/ delivered solutions for the readership of their output and the employer/colleagues.

 

On a more positive note, it would be worthwhile to see credit given for individuals' contribution through value-adding creativity in financial reporting.

For the avoidance of doubt, scrapping of exams is distinct from learning, which would obviously need to continue in the industry.

Then, there is the highly compromised feature of a "true test", i.e. ceteris paribus, all other things being equal, which ought to be a feature of all exams.

In the period prior to examinations, due to the enormous disparity between abilities of workplace colleagues, all the examinees will have extremely different types of preparation experience. Able colleagues will often have the burden of dealing with the output of colleagues unprepared for their tasks, and the knowledge that they are capable of repairing their work, which consumes lots of time and energy, which would otherwise be directed to exam prep. 

 

Non-financial staff will frequently involve themselves and misrepresent the reality in these situations, frequently targeting the able accountant.

 

Whereas for the unprepared trainee, they will not have the same burdens mentioned above, they are merely chancing their way along and any positive outcome on the ride is a bonus.

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