You are in : Training > Training Categories > Financial & Accounting Training

Certified Chartered Accountants South Africa

Professional development more reliant on e-technologies

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:17

Nadine Kater

"Research conducted by ACCA and Lighthouse Global confirms that online approaches to learning and assessment are having a huge impact on professional development and training for finance professionals, and will continue to do so in the future,” says Head of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants South Africa (ACCA SA), Nadine Kater.

“We wanted to gauge how employers are adopting technology-enabled learning and assessment. We also wanted to better understand the key drivers for its adoption,” Kater explains.

The report, “The e-professional: embracing learning technologies,” crystalises the opinions of a distinguished panel of experts from multinational corporations, global professional service firms, learning providers and other professional bodies. Panellists included: Standard Chartered Bank Learning Designer, May Chan; General Pharmaceutical Council Head of Education and Registration Policy, Damian Day; Towards Maturity Managing Director, Laura Overton; BDO Director of Technical Training and Student Qualifications, Greg Owens; PwC Global Development Leader, Richard Pollard, World Class Arena CEO, Martin Ripley; Shell Vice President, Tax: Eastern Hemisphere and Global Tax Practices, Jim Robertson; BPP Business Schools CEO, Martin Taylor and Ernst & Young Director, National Exam Training Team, Kristin Watson.

“There was a general consensus amongst panellists that e-learning and assessment provides the possibility of rich and complex solutions to create a better learning experience. There was also consensus that e-assessment creates more scope to develop more challenging and realistic tests for assessing a candidate’s skills and competencies. Most importantly, the panellists concurred that quality is not compromised when technology-enhance learning and assessment is deployed.” Kater informs.

Universities, colleges and corporates worldwide have embraced e-learning.

Advances in technology are changing the way in which professionals learn. “Advances in technology are particularly important for South Africa, and the African continent as a whole,particularly advances in mobile technology. The cell phone boom in Africa is well-documented, as is the innovative way in which mobile technology is being used in the African continent. There are currently around 500 million cellular phone subscribers in Africa, and approximately 10,2million cell phone users in South Africa. Africa has pioneered mobile banking. Mobile banking has provided basic financial services to millions of unbanked in rural and urban centres.

Many web users in Africa use mobile devices only. Going forward, the ability to assess skills and competencies, provide tuition, and conduct examinations via mobile devices,will be extremely important for Africa as a whole. As far as the latter is concerned, ACCA is firmly on track. ACCA signed a contract with Summit Consulting Group earlier this year, to develop an innovative e-assement programme. This is the start of a move towards on-demand examinations,” Kater explains.

Panellists recommendations for the way forward include viewing technology as a facilitator of change, rather than a silver bullet; ensuring that content for e-learning fits into a blended programme of learning; investing sufficient time and resources on planning and design of the e-learning product; and ensuring that technology is user-friendly and intuitive to use.