CPAs are true knowledge workers, so it only follows that CPA Continuing Education is required. In the accounting profession, access to knowledge and new information is needed, and the nature of requirements is based on the specialty, goals, and aspirations of each professional accountant. For planning purposes, there are three categories of skills for CPA Continuing Education: 1. 'technical skills' in a specification area of specialization, 2. 'hard skills' in targeted business skill areas, and 3. 'soft skills' to develop greater personal savvy. Here's a more detailed look at each.
Technical Skills for CPA Continuing Education
By technical skills, I am talking about the areas related to the CPA's specialty. Some of these skills are broad in nature within the
accounting knowledge domain, such as capital budget accounting, or general operating budgeting. But more often than not, they involve accounting rule expertise, usually involving changing legislation as well as best practices, in certain specialties. For example, one accounting practitioner may want to expand knowledge about inheritance taxation. Another may need to keep abreast of accounting rules and unique business structures in, for example, the medical device industry. Still another may be entrenched in international business and need in depth knowledge about accounting for cross-border transactions.
CPA Continuing Education for Objective Hard Skills
Separate and distinct from the technical skills are hard skills in areas like software, such as MS Office, accounting software, or even enterprise management software. Other hard skills include business skills such as project management, portfolio management, business analysis, Six Sigma, and much more. These skills are not core to accounting itself, but can greatly increase the effectiveness of a CPA and fuel new business objectives.
CPA Continuing Education for Soft Skills
Soft skills are critically important, and working with clients, within any size business, or in the public domain demands fine-tuned soft skills. Indeed, it is well-documented that a large - maybe even vast majority - proportion of success is determined by soft skills. These skills include leadership, communications, team building, and technical writing and speaking in public.
"John Reiling is President and Owner of PROtrainingonline.com, which provides CPA Continuing Education through hundreds of
NASBA-approved professional online training courses on its site www.cpetrainingonline.com/ John is a licensed
Professional Engineer (PE), has held several IT certifications, and is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB)."