Professional skills and experience is one of the three elements of the ACA. Here’s how it works – and how to develop your skills from day one.
What are professional skills?
This element of the ACA is all about developing the key transferrable skills you need to be an ICAEW Chartered Accountant. In today’s environment, it’s not enough to be technically proficient: you need to be a strong communicator, a critical thinker and a future leader. Professional skills go hand-in-hand with technical knowledge, linking the theory to the practice and building together on your journey towards becoming qualified.
While professional development is an integral part of the ACA, it’s not something you ever ‘complete’ – these are skills you will build on throughout your career with continuing professional development (CPD). Aspects such as communication, leadership and emotional intelligence are often called ‘soft skills’ – but instead you should think of them as core strengths.
How does it work?
Professional skills are divided into five core competency areas:
- Communication: this underpins everything that chartered accountants do. It’s not just about whether you can speak and write well; it’s about ensuring information is accurate and delivering effective messages.
- Critical thinking: in an ever changing business environment, you need to be a critical thinker, taking into consideration aspects such as sustainability and technological change. As well as having a curious mindset – the ability to question everything – you need to be adaptable so as not to be left behind.
- Professionalism: essential for building trust and credibility, this is about accountability, ethical decision-making and always doing the right thing – even when nobody’s watching.
- Leadership: this area covers aspects such as collaboration, project management and digital innovation alongside developing yourself and those around you to become future leaders.
- Emotional intelligence: perhaps the most important area, and the glue that holds everything together. This is about building strength and resilience, and having an awareness of others – in short, being the best that you can be.
Each of the five areas has five skills within it, and as an ACA student, you’ll need to demonstrate proficiency in all 25 by the end of your training. You won’t be looking at any single one in isolation, though – all the skills are integrated and interconnected.
How do I demonstrate them?
The framework is designed to reflect the skills you’ll be developing throughout your training agreement, both in the workplace and through your learning and exams. Some lend themselves better to what you’ll be doing early on in your career, while others you might not gain experience of until later.
Take ‘Active listening’ within Communication, for example. This is about more than simply listening to what’s being said; it’s the ability to openly engage with someone, recognise non-verbal as well as verbal communication, understand what they’re trying to convey and the feelings behind how they’re conveying it, judge its importance and direct your questioning appropriately. This is something you’ll see quickly, probably in the first days and weeks in your new job, so you’ll soon be able to demonstrate your first proficiency level: awareness.
After ‘Aware’, there are two more proficiency levels: ‘Experienced’ and ‘Accomplished’. You’ll need to have reached at least ‘Experienced’ in all 25 skills in order to qualify. You might move to an ‘Experienced’ level with Active listening quite quickly – knowing that you should leave your phone behind when you come to a meeting, for example, so that you can give people your full attention and actively take part in the discussion. With other skills, such as ‘Developing others’ within Leadership, you might not get an opportunity to do something like mentoring a new student until your second or third year of training.
You will naturally experience many of the skills alongside each other rather than in isolation. While engaging in active listening, you might also demonstrate ‘Clarity’, another Communication skill, or ‘Empathy’ and ‘Appreciating other viewpoints’, two skills within Emotional intelligence. Of course, we’re all different – some of us might be brilliant at ‘Digital capability’, while others are great at ‘Project management’ – so while there’s a minimum level that all students need to demonstrate, you also have the opportunity to really showcase areas where you shine and reach ‘Accomplished’.
By the time you become an ICAEW member, you should be ‘Accomplished’ in a minimum of five skills. But remember, they will never be “completed” – you’ll continue to develop them depending on where you are in your career, the knowledge and abilities you have, and what you’re experiencing in the workplace.
How do I record them?
Everyone’s journey is unique, and the skills framework is designed to be flexible to suit you and your employer. You’ll have review meetings with your qualified person responsible for training (QPRT) at least twice a year, where you’ll talk about your experiences over the past six months.
Rather than thinking about all 25 skills at once, you should focus on five or six in your conversation – and you’ll no doubt be able to come with examples that demonstrate multiple skills. You might discuss an occasion where you had to go and speak to somebody in another department (demonstrating ‘Collaboration’ within Leadership) before presenting to a small group of people (building ‘Confidence’ within Communication) and then sharing your experience with colleagues afterwards (‘Developing others’ within Leadership).
It’s a good idea to get into the habit of noting down examples when they happen, so that you’re not trying to think back over six months’ worth of learning and work experience just before you go into your six-monthly review. The meeting is also about looking forwards, identifying areas where you need more experience – and it is your employer’s responsibility to give you those opportunities. It’s then up to both of you how you evidence and record your progress – this might just be through your conversations, or written up within your online training file.
Where can I get more help?
There are practical, hands-on guides which explain more about each of the 25 skills, five competency areas and three proficiency levels. You’ll also find professional skills content within Specialised Learning, with courses covering topics such as communication skills, project management, developing a curious mindset and building resilience to help you develop further and fill any gaps.