Examples of claiming Your Experience

Paul is working as a contract project manager and helps large corporations implement their IT projects on time and within budget. The nature of his work means he changes jobs quite frequently. He has held three different jobs with three different companies in the last year. To keep track of his experience, he fills out a claim form before he finishes a contract.

For Paul’s work to be considered ‘relevant’ he must satisfy at least one technical skill. He looks through the skills list. After reviewing the list, Paul finds that he can demonstrate appropriate examples for three technical skills featured in the list:

• MAN 2 – contributing to the design of organisational processes
• MAN 4 – establishing financial control systems
• FRM 4 – developing financial risk control systems.

He also feels his work in Project Governance is relevant, and while it’s not on the list, he submits a self-written example demonstrating his experience.

When he’s completed the form, he has the company’s CFO (a CPA) sign off his experience before he finishes his contract. Paul does this each time he finishes a contract and he now has three forms ready to submit.

Paul knows he is only expected to submit a claim to CPA Australia once a year. So Paul kept his forms safe and submitted them to CPA Australia together for verification.

Anne has been working as a mortgage advisor for three years at Scots Building Society.Her work means she can easily identify her personal effectiveness, leadership and business skills on the skills list. Anne meets two technical skills from the skills list:

• FPL 1 – Determining the financial expectations and goals of a client

• FAC2 – Processing recorded financial information

But her technical work is quite specialised so she also plans to submit a self-written technical skills that is of an equivalent standard:

When working at Scots Building Society as a mortgage advisor I was responsible for applying a credit risk framework to assess my client’s financial position to determine their ability to meet loan obligations.

Anne needs to get her experience signed off by a CPA, but unfortunately her manager is not a CPA, nor a member of another IFAC body. She knows she’ll need to identify a CPA qualified member to help her sign off her experience requirement, so she asks around her professional network and meets Robert who is a CPA and agrees to help Anne. Robert meets Anne from time to time to understand the work Anne is performing so he can assess her experience and confidently sign off on her claim. Anne completes her claim form, Robert signs off her form, and Anne then submits the form to CPA Australia for verification.

Arun is an auditor and has experience at several large accounting firms, based in Australia, and overseas. Arun’s experience in Australia and overseas is all relevant, but he’s lost contact with his former manager in Australia.

Arun’s current manager, Sandra, can sign off his experience at both his current and former employers, provided Arun can adequately demonstrate his examples. Arun and Sandra review his claim and Sandra signs off the form.

Sandra is not a member of CPA Australia, but she is a full member of another professional accounting body which is an IFAC member. Arun then submits the form to CPA Australia for verification.

CPA Australia verify Arun’s claim, and now Arun is on his way to satisfying the Experience requirement.

Penny is completing her Bachelor of Accounting degree and is performing a volunteer role for her university as treasurer of the student union.

Over the course of 12 months, Penny has obtained six months' part-time experience in this role.

Penny reviews the skills list and has satisfied one technical skill and one personal effectiveness skill. She completes a claim form and her university lecturer, who is an FCPA, agrees to sign off her experience.

Penny submits the form and CPA Australia verify her experience. Penny is now on the way to satisfying her Experience requirement.