Competency-based professional education prepares a student to perform a work role to a clearly defined standard, based on real working environments. Since 1986, this approach has been applied to the entire CGA Program of Professional Studies, including its education, examination, and practical experience components.
The CGA program emphasizes key areas of knowledge, skills, and professional values required of accountants and senior financial managers, including:
- professional expertise in accounting and related areas
- ethical judgment and decision-making skills
- effective communication, management, and leadership skills
- interpretive, judgmental, and analytical skills
- competence in the use of the computer as a management and accounting tool
- management of change in the technologies, processes, and structures of organizations
- use of complex information systems in decision making
- adherence to a set of professional values
- commitment to the concept of lifelong learning
The knowledge, skills, and professional values required of a CGA are reflected in a list of competencies. These competencies extend over areas of technical knowledge, general management, leadership, and professionalism, and they are validated periodically through extensive survey analysis. Of the 147 competencies on the list, 126 are identified as core competencies required of a newly certified CGA. Twenty-one additional competencies, not designated as core, are developed through the career option courses at the professional (PACE) level of the program.
A complete list of all competencies in the CGA Program of Professional Studies is available in PDF format.
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