Practical experience requirements guidance - finding a mentor

Who should be your workplace mentor, and can you have more than one? In the first of a series of articles focusing on achieving your practical experience for the ACCA Qualification, student accountant looks at how to find a mentor.

Your workplace mentor will play an important role in helping you to achieve ACCA membership. Not only will they be responsible for signing off the experience you have gained and recorded in the trainee development matrix (TDM), they should also support you in planning, achieving, and recording the experience required to become an ACCA member.

Who should be your workplace mentor?

Think about the qualities required in a workplace mentor before approaching someone to take on that role for you. Your workplace mentor will be responsible for assessing whether or not you have actually achieved a performance objective. Therefore, in order for them to make this judgement, it is crucial that they have knowledge of your work. It will often be your line manager who will fulfil the role of workplace mentor. However, there may be someone who works in a different team, department, or location that meets the criteria to become your workplace mentor.

Ideally, a workplace mentor should also be in a position to influence your access to experience. They should, wherever possible, be able to provide you with opportunities to gain relevant experience so that you can achieve your performance objectives. This may be through secondments, job swaps, or project work.

In order to be able to assess whether or not you have achieved a performance objective, your workplace mentor will need to have an understanding of ACCA’s practical experience requirements and, specifically, the requirements of each performance objective. While personal effectiveness is covered in the Essentials performance objectives, Options performance objectives cover the technical areas of accounting. Therefore, your workplace mentor should also be a qualified accountant. They don’t have to be qualified with ACCA, but should be qualified with an accountancy body recognised by law in the country in which you are working. In summary, your workplace mentor should:

• have knowledge of your work
• be able to provide you with opportunities to gain relevant experience
• be a qualified accountant recognised by law in your country of employment.

What if there isn’t anyone who can be your workplace mentor?

In order to gain ACCA membership, you must have your performance objectives signed off by a workplace mentor. In most cases, your line manager should be able to fulfil that role. However, if your line manager isn’t a qualified accountant there might be another suitably-qualified person who you work with – either someone in another department or more senior in the organisation. It may be that your organisation’s auditor has knowledge of your work and is able to sign-off your experience. Alternatively, you may have been working with a consultant or other expert on a project or development in your workplace that fills the criteria and is willing to be your workplace mentor.

In exceptional circumstances, if your workplace mentor is not a qualified accountant, but holds a qualification that is relevant to the performance objective they are reviewing then this is acceptable - for example, an MBA, degree, or professional qualification. However, if your workplace mentor is not a qualified accountant, the trainee development matrix (TDM) will ‘flag’ your records as ACCA may require to view your experience as part of its PER audit procedures.

More than one mentor?

It is possible that you may have more than one workplace mentor, with different people planning, supporting, and reviewing different objectives. This might be the case if your experience is gained in more than one department or with more than one employer. Remember that experience in any sector - part-time or voluntary roles - may contribute to your practical experience requirements, as long as it is in a relevant accounting or accounting-related role.

How to approach someone to be your workplace mentor

It is likely that the most appropriate person to be your workplace mentor will be your line manager as they have the best understanding of the work you do in your day-to-day role and is best placed to influence the experience that you can obtain. However, in order for the mentoring relationship to work, it is essential that your workplace mentor is interested, willing, and committed. How you approach a potential workplace mentor can help to influence this.

A successful mentoring relationship is most likely to be achieved when both parties clearly understand the objectives and benefits of the process. An individual is more likely to agree to be your workplace mentor if you can specify what you require from them as a mentor. Consider the following before approaching a potential workplace mentor:

• Plan what you are going to say and be clear about your key points. You will come across as more professional and more likely to get the support you want.
• Be clear about what role you want them to play – do you want them to oversee all your practical experience or just specific performance objectives
• Be confident in the benefits your workplace mentor will receive. Sell the role to them by explaining what’s in it for them and why they should support you.

ACCA has published a number of support sheets specifically for workplace mentors, outlining what being an ACCA workplace mentor involves and the benefits for them as an individual. You may wish to provide a copy of Workplace Mentor Support Sheet 6: The Benefits of Being a Workplace Mentor to your potential workplace mentor when you first approach them. This support sheet, and a number of others, can be accessed through the myACCA area of the ACCA website.

The new practical experience requirements are designed so that they can be incorporated into your organisation’s existing appraisal systems. You and your workplace mentor will have a much more effective relationship if you work collaboratively, ensuring that in addition to achieving the requirements of ACCA membership, you will also become a more effective employee, with the skills your employer needs.