so firstly, hello.
This film is all about the importance of the practical experience requirement, or
PER, how it works and what you need to know. Think about your practical experience as
early as possible while studying and ideally complete it at the same time as your
exams. Along with exams and the ethics module is a requirement for membership
and using the ACCA letters after your name. What is PER?
It's important that you can demonstrate your effectiveness in the workplace to
ACCA and also to employers. So all students must complete 36 months in a
relevant role and achieve 9 performance objectives. You don't need to complete
this all in one go, part time and even voluntary work counts, as long as it's in a
relevant role. What counts as a relevant role? It means a role where most of your
time is spent on activities or tasks related to accounting, finance, audit and
assurance or in other related technical areas such as taxation, insolvency and
forensic accounting. To get a better idea of relevant activities, go to my
experience and review the examples provided. If your job includes only a
small amount of accountancy and finance work it can still count as long as you
record the time spent on these activities. For example, if only a quarter
of you time during the year is spent working on accounting and finance tasks
you may only claim three months out of a possible 12 as relevant work experience.
You can use experience from previous roles to help gain your PER,
including experience gained before registering with ACCA. The person who
supervised you work at that time must be able to review and sign off your
performance objectives and the amount of time you are claiming. Performance objectives
are essential in improving your ability to become a member.
They set the minimum standard of work you were expected to achieve and the
values and attitudes you are expected to demonstrate. You need to complete 9 performance
objectives; 5 essentials and 4 technical, all to the satisfaction of
your practical experience supervisor. So, think carefully about what performance
objectives you want to achieve and remember you don't have to do them in
order or achieve them all at once. The performance objectives are made up of
elements which describe the skills and experience you need to demonstrate and the
statement where you
summarize and reflect on your work activity. You will need to claim 5 elements
and compete a statement for each performance objective. You can access your personal
My Experience record through my ACCA. Update it regularly as it proves you
have completed your PER. Even if you are currently studying full-time remember to
update my experience with this information . If you regularly update your
My Experience you'll see how many months of experience you've gained and the number
of performance objectives you've achieved. Let's move on to talk about the
role of the practical experience supervisor. Your supervisor will assess
whether you have achieved the standard required for each performance objective
based on your performance objective statements and performance in the
workplace. The person you choose is key to confirming your PER in the workplace. It's
also your responsibility to find a supervisor. So, there are a few things to
highlight straight away; your practical experience supervisor should be someone
who works closely with you and who knows the work you do and the quality of your
work. Your line manager is a good place to start, or the person you report to on
particular projects and activities.
Your supervisor must be a qualified accountant recognized by law in your
country and or a member of the International Federation of Accountants, IFAC, in order
to sign off your performance objectives. However, your supervisor doesn't need to
be a qualified accountant to sign off the relevant time that you have completed in your
role. So ,if your line manager is not qualified they can sign off your time
and you can nominate a second supervisor to work with your line manager to sign
off your performance objectives; you can have as many supervisors as you like. If
you work for an ACCA approved employer who holds training development approval
at gold or platinum level than you may be allowed to claim a performance objective
exemption, this means that you will not be required to complete the performance
objectives. This exemption exists because ACCA recognizes that your employer
already has a robust training and development program in place and
provides you with the required support to achieve ACCA membership. If you
leave your approved employer where the exemption has been applied you must
complete an approved employer PER summary form which you can find on our website.
When you have found your practical experience supervisor you need to enter
their details and send them an invitation to register as your
supervisor. You won't be able to submit anything to your supervisor or sign up
until they have registered. They will then receive an email asking them to register.
When they have done this you can submit your performance objectives for review.
You can send them individual elements or write your statement and submit the
full objective. You can also submit your time claim for sign off; you'll be
prompted to do this when you end a role or when you reach 36 months. Once your
experience is approved it will show as completed on your My Experience record.
When writing your statement tell us what you did to meet the objective and
highlight any lessons you learned.
Remember that you only need to cover the broad description of each performance
objective; you don't need to summarize all the activities you carried out to
achieve the individual elements. Your situation and experience are unique to
you, so your supervisor and ACCA do not expect to see duplicated answers, whether from
statement to statement or from other trainees. If such duplication occurs then
it may be referred to ACCA's disciplinary committee. At ACCA we carry
out audits to quality assure the PER process and protect the integrity of the
ACCA qualification. We strongly recommend that you regularly keep your My
Experience up to date because we track your progress towards meeting the
membership requirements and will invite you to apply as soon as you are ready.
So, what are you waiting for?
Check out all the great resources and support on our website to help you gain
and record your practical experience. Why not start using the My Experience tool today?
You will be one step closer to completing your journey to ACCA membership.