Initial professional development

Initial professional development (IPD) is an integral part of training to become a chartered accountant. The ACA qualification cannot be gained without successful completion of this.

What is initial professional development (IPD)

IPD is designed to help you integrate your exam studies, technical work experience and the development of your professional skills.

There are two ways to complete IPD:

1. ICAEW's IPD scheme
2. Your employers' accredited IPD scheme

The IPD scheme helps ACA students to develop professionally by considering your work experience in five key areas that define a chartered accountant:

• ethics and professionalism
• personal effectiveness
• technical and functional expertise
• business awareness
• professional judgement.

How to complete your initial professional development (IPD)

The requirements for students following the ICAEW IPD scheme and for students following their employers' accredited IPD scheme are slightly different. Your employer will advise you on which IPD scheme you will be following. You should only complete one scheme.

• Download and read the ACA student training guide (PDF 1MB/36 pages) which contains all the information that you need to complete your IPD
• Access and complete the IPD online sign off process - all ACA students in a training agreement need to complete this
• For students following the ICAEW IPD scheme, download more information about the five key skills areas of IPD (PDF 155KB/7 pages), example IPD student log (PDF 42KB/7 pages) and the IPD student log (Word 889KB/7 pages) which you need to complete.
• If you cannot access the IPD online sign off process or your training agreement has expired, please download the IPD declaration in hard copy. Please ensure that you select the correct form. IPD declaration form A (PDF 218KB/2 pages)
  For students who are following the ICAEW IPD scheme
• IPD declaration form B (PDF 205KB/1 page) 
  For students who are following their employers' accredited IPD scheme