Knowledge acquired from the PER explanation seminar

I intimated my attendance intentions in my last blog entry, and on 30 January 2008 I went to the practical experience record (PER) explanation seminar in Shanghai. Rhys Johnson delivered a wonderful lecture, and I learned a lot about PER and the trainee development matrix (TDM) from the two-hour lecture. I acquired the following information from the seminar, which I think is useful to ACCA trainees.

ACCA trainees work in every sector and size of organisation; it doesn’t matter what sector or organisation you work in. What is important is to look for the opportunities to help you meet your PER and to obtain 36-months’ experience in relevant roles. Ideally, you have a job where the majority of your time is spent on activities and tasks such as accounting, finance, audit and assurance, or in other technical related areas such as taxation.

If your job includes only a small amount of accountancy or finance work, it can count as long as you pro-rata the time you spend on these activities. For example, if only half of your working time – which is equivalent to six months a year spent in an accountancy capacity – you may only claim six months as relevant time in your PER annual return. This may mean that it will take you more than three years to accumulate the relevant experience, because some of your experience is not relevant. This is the reason why ACCA says that trainees need to obtain '36-months’ experience not 3 years.'

To meet the PER requirement, ACCA trainees need to achieve thirteen performance objectives in total – nine essentials performance objectives and four options performance objectives. These objectives are closely linked to the exam syllabus, which reinforces the understanding that any knowledge developed through the exams process will have a clear application in the workplace.

Comments

[Aqeel Ahmed]

Well, quite informative for the beginners who do not actually know how PER or TDM works.

Moreover, the description of the relevant work experience was explained simply.

But information with regard to the role of employer (required by ACCA) in order to record the work experience, was not addressed.

Many students do not even know what they need to do if:
1 They have worked previously in a relevant environment (accounting, finance, commerce or business), even before joining ACCA, on the basis of their relevant studies such as business or commerce qualifications.

and

2 If their employer was not an approved during their work experience and is not yet.

So, in the above explained situations, has what an ACCA trainee needs to do been published on either the ACCA web site or on any blog?