Continuing Professional Development 

Career > Development

Continuing Professional Development

There are many opportunities to accumulate the CPD credits required to advance your skills and knowledge.

FROM: NOV-DEC 2007 ISSUE | BY MINDY ABRAMOWITZ

Congratulations, you’ve completed the CGA Program of Professional Studies. Although you’re no longer a student, your learning process will continue throughout your career.

CGA-Canada uses an hours-based reporting system to track members’ continuing professional development (CPD) on a three-year cycle. Members must accumulate and maintain a moving total of 120 CPD hours, meaning that at any point in time, your cumulative CPD hours for the previous three years must total 120. So, if you acquired 33 CPD hours in 2005 and 44 in 2006, you would need to collect 43 hours in 2007 to reach the moving total of 120 CPD hours; and in 2008 you would need 33 hours to keep your CPD balance up to date.

Sixty of your 120 hours must be verifiable, meaning CPD activities that can be witnessed and measured by someone qualified to do so. Verifiable CPD activities include:

• Attending seminars and courses
• Teaching or presenting seminars
• Developing courses or seminars
• Tutoring or marking assignments for post-secondary credit courses
• Writing or reviewing articles, books, or courses

Non-verifiable CPD activities include technical reading, self-study without a certification of completion or an assessment process, and acquisition of new skills on the job or through volunteer work.

As a recent graduate, you should begin collecting CPD hours immediately and report them by the end of your first full year of membership.

Getting Started

Log on to PD Net (www.cga-pdnet.org) to determine what competencies to work on first. PD Net’s Competency Assessment can point you in the right direction by comparing your current skills and competencies to those of an experienced professional accountant in your field. The results will identify skills and competencies you could improve to help you achieve your career goals.

Your employer and colleagues can also provide some insight into what sort of professional development would be most applicable to your position. The feedback you receive in performance reviews can highlight the competencies you should strengthen.

Early in your career you will most likely encounter new tasks and areas of competency that will call for upgrades in your skills and knowledge base. When I was a new CGA, a provincial sales tax audit inspired me to enroll in a timely PST update seminar. It brought me up to date on the intricacies of my province’s consumer tax legislation, and taught me what I needed to know to negotiate the audit successfully and to advise my employer on compliance issues.

CPD Opportunities

The variety of available CPD opportunities is diverse, and with a little planning, meeting your CPD requirements can be easy and engaging. You can continue your education with a combination of formal seminars and creative study programs to suit your own learning style. PD Net allows you to sort professional development options by area of study, delivery method, or business sector, so you can tailor your learning experience to accommodate peaks in your workload and personal commitments, address your current educational needs, and satisfy your interests.

Are there times when you’re just too busy to attend seminars? Maybe you would find it easier to fit a webcast or online course into your schedule. As long as you have a computer handy, you can take them anywhere, anytime, and you can start and stop the program to study as your schedule permits.

PD Net also offers a wide range of technical articles that you can read at your convenience to acquire non-verifiable CPD hours. In fact, reading technical articles in this magazine is a CPD activity. To claim non-verifiable CPD hours, keep a record of the titles of the publications and how much time you spend reading.

On-the-job Experience

The challenges and responsibilities you face as a new CGA contribute to your professional development. Significant changes in your job functions and those assumed in a volunteer capacity qualify as non-verifiable CPD activities. For example, you may find yourself recruited to work on the redesign and implementation of a point of sale system. CGA-Canada acknowledges that you will be learning while you work on this project and will recognize the hours you devote to honing the skills necessary to fulfill your mandate and train your colleagues.

Provincial CGA affiliates and regional chapters strive to create and share professional development resources that are accessible and relevant to all members. Many CPD offerings are inexpensive or free; their timing and format is convenient and flexible; and they provide a framework for innovation and initiative. One of the best ways to celebrate your achievement in becoming a CGA is to carry on learning and enjoying the rewards of your growing expertise.

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