ethics - The Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa

QUALITY ASSURANCE OF THE INSTITUTE OF
INTERNAL AUDITORS SOUTH AFRICA’S CONTINUING
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) PROGRAMS
The Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa (IIA SA) has in recent
months had numerous queries regarding accreditation of its CPD Program
and in order to give members clarity on the meaning of accreditation,
we hereby would like to share the feedback we received from the
Finance, Accounting, Management Consulting and other Financial Services
SETA (FASSET) regarding accreditation for CPD.
INTRODUCTION
The current education and training legislation in South Africa (which includes
the SAQA Act, the Skills Development Act, the Skills Development
Levies Act and all the associated regulations) has been developed to support
social and economic development in the country. It achieves this
objective by creating an integrated, high quality education and training
system which contributes to the full development of individuals, enhances
career development and results in more competitive industries.
Accreditation has become the latest “buzzword” as part of the new approach
to the evaluation of the quality of training. The public’s knowledge
and reliance on accreditation status is a direct outcome of the daily
Advisory
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What we do:
Assurance
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Web: www.xabiso.co.za Email: info@xabiso.co.za
work that ETQAs are involved in. It is however, also one of the most misunderstood
processes and has become the catch-all phrase when employers
are seeking some kind of assurance that the training they pay for,
will be of the ‘right standard.’
IS ACCREDITATION APPLICAbLE TO CDP PROGRAMMES?
It is thus necessary to place ‘accreditation’ in the correct context regarding
Continuing Professional/Development Programmes.
Accreditation is defined in the ETQA Regulations as the “certification, usually
for a particular period of time, of a person, a body or an institution as
having the capacity to fulfill a particular function in the quality assurance
system set up by the South African Qualifications Authority in terms of
the Act.” This means that the organisation has met stipulated criteria as
set out by SAQA. SAQA accredits ETQAs for SPECIFIC registered qualifications
and unit standards and in turn ETQAs accredit providers.
Important facts relating to accreditation:
• A training provider (organisation) is accredited not the training programme.
• Accreditation can only be done by an accredited ETQA.
• An ETQA cannot use the term ‘accreditation’ if the qualifications or
unit standards are not registered on the NQF.
• Accreditation leads to ‘credit-bearing’ programmes being offered to the
learner AND thus the learner will earn credits to be recorded on the NQF.
• Credit-bearing means an assessment of the learner’s competence
needs to completed in order to grant credits (e.g. marks obtained in
an examination).
• Accreditation relates to obtaining or achieving a qualification not
post-qualification.
In view of the above, it is clear that a CPD programme or a training provider
offering CPD does not fit into the ETQA/accreditation arena. CPD
programmes are too short to meet the unit standard outcomes, the
courses are non-credit-bearing and they are done after a qualification.
The need for CPDs is borne out of the necessity for professionals,
in general, to remain up to date with their technical knowledge. In
the accounting and auditing professional environment, it has also
become an international requirement that relates specifically to the
retention of professional practice standards required of accountants
by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). In view of this,
most, if not all professional bodies offer their members CPD courses.
The Professional Bodies thus have strict measures in place to evaluate
these programmes and the delivery thereof.
Fasset has a long-standing relationship with the Institute of Internal
Auditors South Africa. It is our understanding that a strict selection
process is followed to utilise certain CPD training providers. The IIA
SA has indicated that Fasset is welcome to verify this process and thus
present an objective evaluation of the quality of CPD courses offered.