How do you change a continuing professional education model for CPAs that’s been in place for 40+ years? Step by step.
At the CPA Center of Excellence®, powered by the Indiana CPA Society, we know our goal might sound a wee bit crazy on on the face of it — to change the hours based model of CPE, in place in our state at least since the 1970s, to a model that also allows for competency-based learning. While we know CPAs want CPE that better serves their needs (see our study showing that response here), we also know that with the current layered regulatory model and all the various stakeholders involved, we are embarking on a possibly long journey. While we hope change will come quickly, we also are realistic in our expectations, and know that short, logical jumps in the pace of change are much more palatable to the majority of us.
Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at the Indiana Board of Accountancy meeting on our first competency-based online Ethics course, one of the steps along the path to changing the model. Our first step was creating competency-based online courses in the CPA core competencies (critical thinking, leadership and the like) and working with the Indiana Board of Accountancy to secure a waiver for CPE credit for those classes. Now we are proposing an actual rule change to the ethics rule for Indiana, hoping to allow for CPAs to obtain their ethics credit via a traditional four-hour course, serving in a volunteer capacity like on the INCPAS Ethics Committee, or taking a competency-based ethics course like the one we are creating.
We believe this step-by-step model of change, which allows us to get feedback from CPAs to both improve the courses and share their experiences with the Indiana Board of Accountancy, will help us create the larger change in the long run. This step-by-step process allows us to do our due diligence in compiling the research and practice models that show competency-based education works and is valued by CPAs.
This relationship with the Indiana Board of Accountancy has taken time to build, via the Indiana CPA Society, and we are very thankful for it. Tomorrow will be the next step in the journey towards a better CPE model — and we hope that as we continue down this path, we’ll see even more of you walking along with us, fighting the fight. We believe CPAs deserve better in their lifelong learning journey. Don’t you?
Jess Halverson Bowyer, Strategist — CPA Center of Excellence®
