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Workplace mentors
The role of the workplace mentor is central to you completing your experience and gaining the ACCA Qualification.
What is a workplace mentor?
A workplace mentor is an individual who supports your development in the workplace and reviews your progress and achievement at work, thereby playing an important role in the achievement of your PER. Your workplace mentor should guide and support you by:
- helping you identify which performance objectives you should aim to achieve
- setting targets in terms of performance and timescales
- providing access to appropriate work experience and supporting your development. This may mean helping arrange job rotations, project work, or other opportunities to gain relevant experience
- evaluating and reviewing your progress on a regular and ongoing basis
- signing-off performance objectives that you have achieved.
If your workplace mentor has agreed to review your practical experience online, then they will be able to use the trainee development matrix (TDM) to review your answers to the challenge questions.
Who can be your workplace mentor?
Your workplace mentor should be someone with whom you work closely, who knows the type of work you currently undertake, and who also knows the quality of your work. Ideally this will be your line manager, or whoever you report to on particular projects or activities.
Your workplace mentor should be a qualified accountant. If they are not an ACCA member, they should be a member of a professional accountancy or audit body recognised by law in the country in which you work.
You may have more than one workplace mentor - or several different workplace mentors over a period of time - who are responsible for helping you to achieve different performance objectives. For example, you may report directly to your line manager who will be able to help you with Performance Objective 5, Communicate Effectively, but you may also be working closely on a project with another colleague who may be able to support you on Performance Objective 9, Manage an Assignment.
It is important that your workplace mentor has the knowledge and experience to support you - they will be assessing whether you have met performance objectives so it is crucial they have the expertise to do this. You should always avoid having friends or relatives as your workplace mentor to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
Training supervisor
If your workplace mentor is not a qualified accountant or auditor, another option is to get your performance objectives countersigned by someone who can act as your ‘training supervisor’.
A training supervisor must be a qualified accountant or auditor recognised by law in your country of employment.
Training supervisors do not have access to the online TDM to review and sign off your achievements. Instead, they will need to be provided with a paper copy of your challenge questions and answers as well as the sign-off form – which you can print from the online version of the TDM. You must keep the signed-off forms in case you are selected for a PER audit.
You or your workplace mentor must enter the details of your training supervisor into the online TDM, and also record when they have signed off a performance objective.