Why Practical Experience Requirement (PER) is Important?

Becoming a fully qualified professional accountant and member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) requires three things:

1. Taking and passing all the exams (except for the exams that have been exempted for the student)

2. Completion of Professional Ethics Module (except for the students who registered to the ACCA before December 31, 2006)

3. Meeting Practical Experience Requirement (PER) of ACCA

For meeting the practical experience requirement of ACCA, the students have to work in finance, accounting, or audit related role for 36 months. Work in a role in other related technical areas, such as taxation, forensic accounting and insolvency, can also count towards the 36-month requirement. Along with the work requirement, the students also have to answer challenge questions related to the work experience. The challenge questions are designed to allow the students to assess and reflect on the quality of their work. The experience gained and the answers to the challenge questions have to be recorded and reported to the ACCA for claiming membership. The recording and reporting of PER is done on the official website of the ACCA by accessing My Experience tool through myACCA.

For performing effectively as a qualified professional accountant and to meet the future career challenges, the students need to develop their skills in workplace. PER offers an opportunity to the students to develop these skills. It helps the students to:

· Apply the knowledge and techniques they learned from their studies and ACCA exams

· observe and be involved in real-life work scenarios that can help them to develop the skills, behaviors and attitudes expected from a fully qualified accountant

· Develop their judgment and to encourage them to reflect on the quality of their work and the ways in which the quality of their work can be improved

The employers have very high professional expectations from ACCA members. They expect the ACCA members to show high level of knowledge and abilities while in the workplace and to act and behave in an ethical manner. PER enables the students to confirm their effective and sustained workplace performance of high quality. This makes them more valuable in the eyes of the employers.

To achieve the status of ACCA member and to enjoy the benefits associated with the membership, the students must complete all of the above mentioned requirements. If a student do not complete the PER, he/she cannot become an ACCA member. Therefore, he/she is not qualified as professional accountant and cannot undertake the activities that only a qualified professional accountant can undertake such as signing an audit report.

The students who have completed all of the ACCA exams but not yet completed PER, cannot call or designate themselves as ACCA members. They cannot present themselves as ACCA members in any document such as CV or visiting card. The status of these students is ACCA affiliate. Therefore they can present themselves as ACCA affiliates only.