Situating Continuing Professional Development in Life Long Learning in Qatar

Abstract

<p>Continued professional development (CPD) has been at the centre of capacity building in most successful organisations in western countries over the past few decades. Specialised professions in fields such as Accounting, Finance and ICT, to name but a few, are continuously evolving, which is necessitating certain standards to be followed through registration and certification by a designated authority (e.g. ACCA). Whilst most developed countries such as the UK and the US have well established frameworks for CPD for these professions, several developing nations, including Qatar (the chosen context for this article) are only just beginning to adopt these frameworks into their local contexts. However, the unique socio-cultural settings in such countries require these frameworks to be appropriately modified before they are adopted within the respective national context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of CPD in Qatar through comparing the UK as a benchmark and drawing corresponding and contrasting observations to formulate a roadmap towards developing a high level framework.</p>

Compliance with Continuing Professional Development (IES7) of Internal Auditor and Quality of Internal Audit Function

“…On this note, CPD's place within Qatar was investigated by Weerakkody et al (2016) via the contrasting of it to that of the UK as a way to create a roadmap; this was done with the ultimate goal of creating a high-quality framework. As founded by Seol et al (2011), surveys indicate that more personal expertise (i.e., fairness; honesty) could be considered as of higher importance and influence than those in the technical arena (i.e., tech communication).…”

“…According to Weerakkody et al (2016), the UK and USA are two examples of first-world countries possessing high-rung continuous professional development frameworks within such careers, whilst lesser developed countries (such as Qatar) are currently still undergoing the initial stages for such framework implementation through a local lens. To comprehend this gap between countries Majzoub & Aga (2015) put forward a framework via the evaluation of the professional accounting educational system, from the viewpoint of the IAES.…”

“…It is along these lines that Aburous (2019) indicates the need to look into accounting education within Jordanian universities, as this has not updated in line with regulatory changes. In the same vein, modern studies commissioned by the ongoing education department at Qatar University point out that Qatar will require a comprehensive competencies reference frame for the analysis of persisting gaps that from an organizational viewpoint in order to respond to the development of the labour market (Weerakkody et al, 2016). Also, Al-khater & Al-Kholi (2015) additionally indicating the presence of challenges facing accounting education within Qatar.…”

Examining graduate skills in accounting and finance

“…Interestingly, the impact of the skills challenge has a different dimension in different parts of the world (Osmani et al, 2015;Weerakkody et al, 2016). While many Western nations are faced with the challenge of too many graduates and too few jobs, Middle Eastern countries are striving to reduce their reliance on an expatriate workforce by developing nationals in highly skilled jobs in fields such as accounting and finance and information and communication technology (ICT) (Weerakkody et al, 2015(Weerakkody et al, , 2016E&Y, 2012. Several countries in the Middle East have initiated national programmes focused on the development of human capital and the movement towards a knowledge-based economy .…”

“…In light of this learning and teaching environment, it is also important to assess how students feel about graduate skills and what they perceive to be the most important skills that will make them desirable to employers (Osmani et al, 2015;Wilkin, 2014;Yap et al, 2014). Ensuring awareness and appreciation of the in-demand graduate skills among the student population is as important as the initiatives and methods that are used by academics to deliver the skills (Weerakkody et al, 2016). The aim of the article is to assess students' perception of graduate skills in the accounting and finance field in the Middle East.…”