IAESB Proposes Review of International Educational Standards

IAESB has proposed a revision of International Educational Standard 8, Professional Development for Engagement Partners Responsible for Audit of Financial Statements, for public discussion.

The standard that has been revised outlines the requirements around developing active as well as potential partners professionally on financial statements audits. International Education Standards 8 mainly focuses at International Federation of Accountants bodies but will also be of interest to regulators, employers as well as government organizations and will have an effect on the United Kingdom’s auditing profession in the long run.

The International Accounting Education Standards Board has proposed learning results which basically exhibit the competence that is needed to convert into engagement partner in fields related to professional skills, ethics, attitudes and values and technical skills.

IAESB’s chairman Professor Peter Wolnizer stated that a very basic manner in which the profession of accounting safeguards the interest of the public is by ensuring that engagement partner members have the essential training and skills in order to be able to enact their part effectively. He also stated that the public possess all the rights to have expectations from engagement partner members and should be assured that these partners have been trained appropriately. The public should have faith in the partners to perform financial statement auditing competently all through their professional careers.

In order to make their standards all the more clear, International Accounting Education Standards Board is working and redrafting their education related standards. Apart from the revision of International Education Standards project some of the other revisions have also been proposed. These basically include IES 2, IES 3, IES 4, IES 5 and IES 6.

As per the existing timetable, the International Accounting Education Standards Board is also anticipating that the entire set of eight standards will be completely revised as well as redrafted or only redrafted by the third quarter of 2013. The final date for sharing comments is 11^th of December 2012.

International Education Standards review will bring about improvements in readability as well as ensure application of every standard consistently by minimizing ambiguity around the needs that are imposed on a particular IFAC member group.