Training insights: The IIA Certificate in Internal Audit and Business Risk

Do you seek assurance from other sources across the organisation? Are you bringing in new team members who are subject experts, but lack previous internal audit experience? Do you know people in compliance roles or on audit committees who need to refresh their knowledge of corporate governance? If so, then you may want to recommend they enrol on the IIA Certificate in Internal Audit and Business Risk.

To meet today’s assurance demands, internal audit teams increasingly rely on people in other functions to understand the corporate governance framework and work to common standards. Encouraging those working in compliance or assurance roles without formal internal audit qualifications to study for the certificate will therefore improve your organisation’s knowledge of corporate governance and reinforce the internal audit function’s work.

What’s more, the costs and penalties of inadequate compliance increase constantly – and it is likely that the government’s work on audit reform will put more onus on leaders to understand the quality of the assurance they receive and where it comes from. A board that can state that assurance providers have the certificate can be confident that they have at least a basic level of expertise.

This is also why the course is part of the internal audit apprenticeship programme. “One advantage of the certificate is that we do not have to focus on preparing candidates to answer exam questions, so the courses can be more flexible and activity led,” explains Marian Silltow, one of the Chartered IIA’s course trainers. “We have the freedom to explore topics and encourage open discussions about issues that attendees want to understand better.”

What’s in it?

The programme comprises five modules. “Corporate governance and risk management” and “Internal audit planning and assurance framework” are compulsory. Participants then choose two of the remaining three modules: “Effective delivery of audit and assurance”, “Interpersonal skills for audit and assurance”, and “Compliance audit and assurance”. They must complete a Personal Development Log for each module within six weeks of completing it and then, after finishing all four modules, they must submit a Professional Experience Record and demonstrate that they have at least six months’ relevant experience in a related audit or assurance or risk role.

Each module is supported by a two-day training course led by an experienced Chartered IIA trainer. These can be run in-house for organisations that require several people to gain accreditation, or via public courses.

“There tends to be lots of positive interaction. People are usually willing to talk and exchange ideas and questions about issues they are seeing in their own organisations. Junior team members don’t always get much opportunity to do this in their normal roles. It can be really valuable for them to talk to their peers in different sectors and other businesses,” Silltow says.

The whole certificate can easily be completed within a year. Some people do it faster, but Silltow recommends allowing a month to six weeks for each module to give participants time to complete the reading and reflect on their learning. The range of relevant backgrounds means that each person brings a different mix of knowledge and experience to their training, so the amount of work they need to do varies widely.

“This is one of the main benefits of the course,” agrees Stephen Maycock, another of the Chartered IIA trainers. “Most people know how things are done in their organisation. This gives them a chance to find out what best practice is, based on the insights of the institute, and to explore how others in their sector and more widely do things. Each group of attendees is different, so no two courses will be the same and you meet a variety of people doing different roles on each one you do.”

At the end of the course, participants not only get the certificate, but will also have transferable skills that are relevant and useful in a wide range of roles whether they work in internal audit or second- or first-line jobs, he points out. Whatever you plan to do in future, the certificate gives you a strong foundation. 

This article was published in May 2023.