Practical Experience
The final exit requirement for certification in the CGA program is practical experience. Generally speaking, it takes students a minimum of 36 months to gain appropriate breadth and depth of competencies for certification. However, some students may complete the requirement in as few as 24 months depending upon their individual rates of advancement.
Students may obtain practical work experience in any sector of the economy: Corporate, Public Practice, Non-Profit and Government. During the course of their studies, students may change their employment positions, moving not only from one industry to another, but from one branch of the profession to another. The freedom to obtain experience in a variety of accounting and financial management positions is one of the major advantages of the CGA program.
Recognizing that many organizations will only employ registered CGA students, the association allows students to enroll in the CGA Program prior to obtaining related employment.
How is Practical Experience Assessed?
Students either in level four or above are required to report their employment experience by completing the Professional Experience Required for Certification (PERC) and submitting it to CGA Manitoba for evaluation. Employers are required to validate the reported competencies. The Association uses these evaluations to verify and assess reported experiences, as well as to help each student fulfill the practical experience requirement necessary for certification.
For more information about the practical experience requirement, please contact Kathryn Balzer at
kbalzer@cga-manitoba.org or by calling 1-877-452-4262.
Examples of Practical Experience portfolios of a CGA student in the Advanced Studies level:
FINANCE, ACCOUNTING & MANAGEMENT CONTROL
- Accounting for business combinations
- Calculating earnings per share
- Supervising employees
- Performing job costing
- Preparing budgets and variance analysis
- Cash flow planning
- Evaluating cost of capital
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- Performing analysis of requirements
- Preparing systems and user procedures
- Testing systems
TAXATION
- Share disposition on re-organization of capital
- Purchase or sale of assets of a business
- Computing capital dividend election
AUDITING
- Audit of sales and collection cycle
- Testing internal controls
- Analyzing audit results
- Program development
- Auditing through the computer system
PUBLIC SERVICE
- Accounting for funds, revenues and expenditures
- Exercising commitment authority
- Preparing budgetary reports
- Presenting public information
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
- Strategic planning
- Team building
- Preparing and delivering presentations