Reflections
Letter from the President and CEO
Our Innovative Education Model
FROM:
MAR-APR 2005 ISSUE
We are all aware that the business world is evolving at an ever-increasing pace. Not only is technology changing by leaps and bounds but so too is the way companies operate. The regulations, the complexity, the very nature of business itself are markedly different today than they were even as recently as the start of this millennium.
Just as the business world changes, so too must accountants.
CGA-Canada's commitment to evolve with the marketplace was recently underscored when we launched an enhanced certification model that will build on the existing high standards for CGAs.
At the heart of the enhanced model are a revised program curriculum and examinations. Expanded Professional Applications (PA) requirements will emphasize the roles of accountants operating within and outside companies, in both the public and private sectors.
The Issues in Professional Practice component of the revamped model will focus on the perspective of an external accountant providing auditing, taxation, and business advisory services to clients, while the Strategic Financial Management component will focus on the internal accountant or financial manager, and offer an
in-depth study of strategic financial management concepts.
CGA was the first accounting body in Canada with a
competency-based education program, and our candidates will continue to be assessed on core competencies such as ethics, business strategy, and change management — the skills people want in effective financial leaders, and the skills they get when they choose a CGA.
The changes to the curriculum are the result of two years of extensive consultations and ongoing market research into the changing nature of the accounting workplace, as well as internal reports,
CGA-Canada's practice analysis survey, and discussions with the people who hire and recruit accountants.
Our goal in making these changes has always been straightforward: to ensure that the CGA designation continues to stand strong and powerful, at the forefront of Canada's accounting profession. CGA sets itself apart from this country's two other accounting designations because of the depth and breadth of our education program, and the access it offers to a wide variety of different career paths.
CGAs excel in all professional areas, from audit to management and everything in between. We are an attractive choice for today's students, employers, and the business community, and because of that, we are the fastest-growing accounting designation in Canada. We intend to maintain that position well into the future, and these changes will certainly play a part in that.
Most importantly, the model reflects the Association's continued commitment to evolve and to serve the rapidly changing and diverse needs of Canadian businesses. It will ensure that prospective CGAs have integrated the necessary competencies and met our high standards when they graduate, enabling them to act as business leaders and operate in multi-disciplinary environments.
The changes we see taking place in the business world around us represent an opportunity for CGAs as accounting professionals and CGA as a national accounting organization to grow and get better at what we do, and this is an opportunity I am very proud to say we have embraced.
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