ACCA offers three streams of approval under the Approved Employer programme:
Trainee Development - recognises the learning opportunities your company provides for employees working towards either the ACCA Qualification or the Certified Accounting Technician qualification (part of the Foundations in Accounting suite of awards).
Professional Development - recognises the learning opportunities your company provides for ACCA members to support their continuing professional development (CPD).
Practising Certificate Development - recognises the learning opportunities your company offers for trainees and members training towards the ACCA practising certificate.
Audit Qualification Development - recognises the learning opportunities your company offers for trainees and members training towards the ACCA audit qualification.
Sustainability Assurance - recognises firms for providing individuals with the opportunity to undertake activities that meet the sustainability assurance licensing requirements.
Choosing a scope of approval means that the learning and development policies and processes your approval will be based on are applied consistently to all ACCA trainees or members working for your company in a specific range of locations.
You will need to choose a scope of approval for each stream you are applying for, and you may need to provide some additional information.
For more information, refer to the following sections on scope.
You can apply for multiple approval streams, but you will need to make separate applications for each stream. Please note that there are interdependencies between the PCD, AQD and the SA approvals, and these must be applied for in that particular order.
The approval will apply to ACCA trainees or members working in a single department or function within a single office or location of the named company.
For example, the Internal Audit Department at stated company address. You will be asked to provide the name of the department/function within the online application.
The approval will apply to all ACCA trainees or members working in relevant finance roles within a single office or location of the named organisation. This location should be the same as the stated organisation address.
For example, all of the ACCA trainees or members working in relevant finance roles at the organisation address provided.
The approval will apply to all ACCA trainees or members working in relevant finance roles within some, but not all, of the named organisation’s offices in one or more countries.
You will be asked to provide full address details for each of the offices to be covered by the approval within the online application.
For example, all of the ACCA trainees or members working in relevant finance roles in eight of the organisation’s 10 offices.
The approval will apply to all ACCA trainees or members working in relevant roles within any of the named company’s offices in one or more countries.
You will be asked to provide a list of the countries to be covered within the online application.
For example, all of the ACCA trainees or members working in relevant finance roles in all of the organisation’s offices across Europe and Asia.
This scope applies to all ACCA trainees and members working in relevant finance or accounting roles within any of the company’s offices worldwide that share the same name as the main approval entity. The approval covers all locations where the organisation operates globally.
An employer with a Global scope is considered to have a presence across at least two continents and in at least five countries.
If an office has a different name from the main company, it is considered a subsidiary. Subsidiary offices are not automatically covered under the Global approval unless they have been approved separately under a subsidiary request.
An organisation can apply for Global scope either during the application process or at any point after being approved. To do so, specific criteria must be met.
