Stay on track with continuing professional education (CPE)

Continuing professional education (CPE) is required by most professional bodies for good reasons. You would not want to be treated by a doctor who had completed no further training since they qualified 30 years ago. Similarly, an internal auditor’s designation from IIA Global or from the Chartered IIA tells an organisation that they have been assessed as competent at the time they became accredited. CPE is designed to ensure that they build on this competency and maintain the relevance of their training over time.

Many internal auditors would do all of the development activities that count towards their CPE as a matter of good practice and interest without being required to. Attending the annual Internal Audit Conference, for example, either in person or digitally, is a good idea for many more reasons than the CPE points you can gain. However, those who attend for the full two days can walk away with their full year’s quota of CPE points as well as a head full of thoughts and ideas. Chartered IIA training courses also count (as do other training events and programmes). Reading this magazine will enable you to log one CPE point per issue.

At least two hours of the CPE must be focused on ethics – and members are required to state that they abide by the IIA’s Code of Ethics.

Changes to note

This year, members should be aware of some important changes to IIA Global’s CPE regime. Most people will not be affected, but the consequences for those who are behind with their CPE reporting could be significant.

“From December this year, anyone who has failed to report their CPE for two years will lose their Global IIA designation and will not be able to regain it without taking the CIA exams again,” warns Nic Martin, Student Support Manager at the Chartered IIA. “There is no ‘expired’ status any more, so if you are a CIA or QIAL and your CPE is currently classed as ‘expired’ you must report by 31 December or lose your status.”

On the record

Although many different development activities count towards your CPE points, you must remember to record each one and provide evidence that you attended and reflected upon your learning. Internal auditors could be expected to be excellent at providing documentation and recording activity given that assessing evidence is a key skill in the job, however some still seem to leave recording their personal development to the last minute.

Martin points out that a Teams meeting request for a training event or workshop cannot be accepted as evidence, since it would have been issued before the event and therefore does not demonstrate that the person attended or learnt anything from it. Furthermore, CPE activity must be additional to your normal work duties – writing an audit report or attending an audit meeting does not count, even if you learnt something new doing it. Similarly, you cannot claim points for hours spent having lunch on a training course or going for drinks with other attendees afterwards.

“It is advisable to plan your CPE early in the year, to keep a log of it and monitor it regularly,” Martin says.

“There is a CPE record template on the Chartered IIA website to help members log activity as and when they do it. You must say what the activity was, reflect on what you learnt and how you are putting it into practice. It must also be signed off by someone else,” he adds. This is not only the best and most organised way to log CPE learning, but also indicates what kind of information members are expected to provide.

Of course, no CPE system could operate without checks. All members must complete CPE annually, but each year a random sample of submissions will be followed up by IIA Global or by the Chartered IIA. The selected members will be asked to provide evidence to back up the claims in their formal CPE log, so it’s advisable for everyone to keep documents that provide proof of the activity they completed.

CPE benefits all members and it should not be seen as an afterthought, but as an essential component of being a professional internal auditor. The world is changing rapidly and knowledge that was current last year is insufficient to face the challenges we’ll face in the future. Organisations need internal audit to understand the risks ahead. No one can provide this while relying on yesterday’s knowledge.

Key facts about CPE

Members of the Chartered IIA are required to maintain and improve their knowledge, skills and other competencies throughout their careers. The Chartered IIA’s CPE policy provides a framework for this. 

The requirements vary according to whether you hold the global CIA certification – in which case you must comply with the IIA Global Certification Renewals Policy – or have a designation issued by the Chartered IIA (PIIA, CMIIA or QICA ) – in which case you must report your CPE to the Chartered IIA according to its CPE Policy. If you hold both the CIA and a designation issued by the Chartered IIA, you must report your CPE only to IIA Global.

All members must complete and record 40 hours of CPE each year. These hours must be reported annually to the relevant body. Those reporting to IIA Global must complete their submissions by 31 December this year. Those reporting to the Chartered IIA have until 31 March 2024.

This article was published in November 2023.