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THE EUROPEAN SEMINAR ON EDUCATION |
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Between the 11th and the 12th of
February 2005, the European Seminar on Education organised by the South-eastern
European Partnership on Accountancy Development (SEEPAD) took place in Sinaia,
Romania, hosted by CECCAR.
The Seminar, otherwise the first of
this kind for SEEPAD member countries, focused on a main theme: ‘The
Application of International Educational Standards issued by IFAC”.
Organised under the patronage of the
Technical Director on education issues of the International Federation of
Accountants (IFAC), the Seminar was open by the SEEPAD President, Mr. Marin
Toma and brought together, as lecturers, trainers, specialists from France,
United States – CARANA Corporation, USAID, ACCA – and Romania – CECCAR and the
Academy of Economical Sciences of Bucharest.
From a general perspective, the
specialists underlined the fact that one can not ignore the spreading of
globalization; therefore, the globalization process encompasses, as well, the
educational sector of accountancy, starting from the academic level up to
continuous professional training of accounting professionals. The global
organization, IFAC has been concerned mainly by the accomplishment of the set
of International Standards issued for the accounting profession. The
International Educational Standards (IES 1 – 7) issued so far by IFAC, comprise
two educational strategies: the first one is related to the pre-qualification
stage of an accountant, (IES 1 - 6) starting from the academic stage,
continuing with the training period necessary to obtain the expert or licensed
accountant qualification; the second one focuses on continuous accountants’
professional development, introducing, through IES 7, the concept of life-time
professional active education.
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In Romania, CECCAR, as an IFAC
member, has sent since 2003 the 6 IES to all the profile universities in the
country, for implementation, including the Academy of Economical Sciences of
Bucharest and the 7th standard has been included within the “professional Norm
number 8 concerning continuous professional development of accountants” for the
use of professional accountants.
Concerning auditing, IFAC is
preparing the Standard number 8 “Audit competence requirements” in order to
establish which are the essential elements and the directives necessary for the
auditors’ good educational practice.
During this seminar, there was a
round table that gave all the SEEPAD member countries representatives the
opportunity to present their concerns towards the implementation of these
International Education Standards, the successful actions, but also the
obstacles that made difficult the comprehension and the application of these
standards on a national level. The need to harmonize and to implement these IES
has been obvious in most of the present countries and the advanced level of
transposing the IES into national norms in Romania – in the case of CECCAR,
through the issue and the implementation of Norm 38 and in the case of the
Academy of Economical Studies of Bucharest, through their implementation into
the academic accounting syllabus – have encouraged the participants to take
active measures in order to transpose these standards into national harmonized
norms ; the accomplishment of this target was in fact the aim of this seminar,
at the end of which the participants have become specialized trainers in the
SEEPAD member countries, whose mission is that of supporting the professional
body as well as the academic environment in the harmonization process of the
local laws with the International Educational Standards.
The participants were presented
information and macro analysis on “economical development and especially
corporate governance” that was defined very simply by one of the participants
as it follows: “Each task (project) must be well done because it is supposed to
be done and not because you know you will be evaluated”, which are the
“changing roles of the accounting profession and of the accounting bodies”, as
well as which are the “regional and global approaches to accountants’
qualification” and, not the least, an exceptional presentation, the “GAEB
project” which included as well SEEPAD member countries and which settles
targets concerning regional development in South-eastern Europe. All these
presentations made the SEEPAD Regional Seminar on Education become the main
vector of discussion, of highest level debates and of informational documents
in order to elaborate standards, directives and national norms concerning
pre-qualification education and continuous professional training for
accountants, in order to understand and accept accounting education in all
South-eastern European countries.
As a conclusion, it is worthy to
cite one of the participants at this seminar who, considering himself
“trained”, mentioned: “I am, today, wiser than yesterday and better informed
for tomorrow