Performance objectives allow you to demonstrate your knowledge, skills and techniques in the workplace.
As part of the practical experience requirement (PER), you'll need to achieve performance objectives. The performance objectives and exams are closely linked. This means that the knowledge you'll develop through your studies are also relevant to the skills and techniques you'll use in the workplace.
Performance objectives are the benchmarks of effective performance. They describe the types of work activities you'll be involved with as trainee accountants. They also outline the values and attitudes you should demonstrate.
You'll need to achieve nine performance objectives in total:
You'll demonstrate your achievement of the performance objectives by performing activities in the workplace. You'll then write a statement to provide examples of your experience which demonstrates to your practical experience supervisor that you have to achieved the objectives.
For more information on the performance objectives, download the performance objectives booklet (PDF, 724KB).
To learn more about how Performance Objectives link to exams, download the exams to objectives factsheet (PDF, 22KB).
These are essential, fundamental, business skills that all professional accountants need so you must achieve all five.
There are 17 Technical performance objectives to choose from - and they fall into different technical areas. You can choose to compelete any four of these objectives.
You’ll need to achieve all 5 Essentials and choose 4 Technical objectives.
It’s best to choose Technical objectives that align to your role. You'll find it much easier to achieve the performance objectives if you focus on the objectives that link most closely to your every day work.
For example, if you're not working in a specific audit or tax role you won't be getting the right level of experience to achieve these objectives. You should choose other objectives that are more relevant to your role.
You can use the ACCA career navigator to help you choose the right performance objectives. Explore the tool to find objectives that best align to your current role or the career or expertise area you aspire to.
There are three parts to a performance objective:
To complete a performance objective you need to achieve all five elements and write a statement. These are submitted to your practical experience supervisor for approval.
Your PER progress - the achievement of the performance objectives, and time spent in a relevant role, are all recorded online in MyExperience, which you access via MyACCA.
Your employer may allow you to record your achivement of performance objectives in a simplified way if:
This is because we recognise that some employers have training programmes which support their trainees to complete their objectives. So in these cases, you’ll achieve the objectives through the training you receive from your employer.