Accountants in practice live or die by the currency and detail of their technical knowledge. If you don’t stay up to date with tax and accounting regulations, you are not competent to practice. As an accountant in business, you also want to remain current, but that may, for many, look very different. It might, for example, be much more important that you are fully briefed on the opportunities and threats of digital innovation in finance, than that you know every arcane detail of group corporation tax calculations – you can rely on your external accountants for that. Accountants in business are different We work closely with accountants in both practice and in business, and one thing is clear: they are very different. How? Both need a combination of technical knowledge, professional competencies and business skills, but the emphasis is different. If you work in business, you will know this, which makes it all the more frustrating when most CPD is focused on updates to the regulations, standards, codes and legislation.
This is a cause for concern for individuals and employers alike. If you are paying for CPD, either for yourself or for your team, you want it to meet your needs.
What’s worse, the mass of technical updates can often be of very poor quality. The ubiquitous streamed webinars, whether live or recorded, provide a largely passive experience. Driven by the need to keep accountants in practice up to date, they deal only with knowledge and result in low retention rates 3 .
A more immersive, interactive experience, focusing on professional skills and business acumen alongside accounting updates is essential for accountants in business.
3 https://www.educationcorner.com/the-learning-pyramid/
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