Accounting professionals and CPD: attitudes and engagement—some survey evidence

Abstract

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a major issue in post-compulsory education at the start of the twenty-first century. This paper reports the results of a recent survey of accountancy members which explored attitudes towards CPD in relation to employability, career success and professional identity. Attitudes to CPD are chiefly correlated with identification with, and commitment to, the profession, rather than the length of time in the profession, job status, age, qualification level, or gender. Implications of this research for post-compulsory education include an enhanced understanding of the motivation to engage in CPD and the benefits professional accountants perceive as arising from this, together with which CPD activities they actually engage in. This research should help professional accounting bodies better understand some of the attitudinal factors in CPD participation, and thus improve the design and communication of their schemes.

Australian Rural Accountants’ Views on How Locally Provided CPD Compares with City-based Provision

“…This was followed by face-to-face professional development conducted by the rural CPA Australia branch council (82%, n = 126), while 67% (n = 102) stated that they attended a face-to-face professional development session conducted by CPA Australia's metropolitan body. The popularity of self-directed reading supports prior research (Wines et al, 2013;de Lange, Jackling and Suwardy, 2015;Ciccotosto, Nandan and Smorfitt, 2008;Rothwell and Herbert, 2007), while the high acceptance of face-to-face presentations is also verified (Ciccotosto, Nandan and Smorfitt, 2008;Ross and Anderson, 2013).…”

“…Findings reinforced that reading and face-to-face CPD activities remain the most popular method of completing CPD (Rothwell andHerbert, 2007, Paisey, Paisey andTarbert, 2007;de Lange, Jackling and Suwardy, 2015). While prior studies (Wines et al, 2013;Ciccotosto, Nandan and Smorfitt, 2008) reported that rural accountants were dissatisfied with the CPD activities offered by the professional bodies, this study found that when a rural professional body provided and delivered the CPD there were generally no differences in satisfaction with metropolitan-provided CPD, yet there was a significantly higher level of satisfaction particularly in terms of cost and value for money.…”

“…Results found that the most frequently reported CPD activity was technical reading, while courses run by professional accounting bodies were the most popular form of face-to-face CPD. Similarly, Rothwell and Herbert (2007) also found that the most popular CPD engagement strategy was reading regular journals and books relevant to the profession, followed by attending CPD meetings. In Australia and across Asia, de Lange, Jackling and Suwardy (2015) reported that 91% of accountants had done some form of self-directed learning, reading or research, while 90% had face-to-face CPD through conference attendance, seminars, discussion groups and/or workshops.…”

Continuing Professional Development and Accounting Academics: A Literature Review

“…Exploring the link between CPD and attitude of professionals, Rothwell and Herbert (2007) suggested that attitude to CPD is associated with learning and job commitment than age, education and experience. The professional accountants have an important place in global business setup; taking their technical skills into consideration, accountants need to play a versatile role in the global economy.…”

Professional Self-Development Based on Informal Learning: A Case Study of Foreign Language Teachers in a University of China

“…L. Cai DOI: 10.4236/jss.2019. 712003 27 Open Journal of Social Sciences least experienced [2]. Considering the fact that except for receiving special training as novice teachers on entering the profession (lasting for one year in the author's institution), mid-career and late-career teachers in higher education are positioned in an unsupervised state in terms of professional development in their long academic life, and have total responsibility and autonomy in deciding how far to go in their career, informal learning holds the key to teachers' continuing professional self-development.…”