Professional Standards: Opportunities on the horizon

I was involved in course design delivery and assessment at the start with PS146 through a specialised boutique RTO. Virtually all candidates and graduates were professionally and academically qualified accountants. I did have a couple of small groups who had no other qualification and in several cases the Diploma was the peak of their abilities and the pinnacle of their academic achievement.

I agree totally with the lift in academic requirements. I fear that there will be overly generous grandfathering and assessment by recognition of either prior learning or current competencies. I taught in universities for my final 20 years and in some cases marks were normalised and mandatory pass percentages were enforced.

Universities assess against outcomes not competencies, but in this professional area the lack of competency and suitable attributes of many planners and requirements of principals has engendered the present serious state of affairs.

I hope there is fairness and rigour in the new requirements and other professionals like accountants have their skills suitably recognised

I too have had experience with many advisers and participated in providing training over the years, I fear that the existing designations will be given some credence as being of a high enough standard. In my experience this is most decidedly not true.

If a degree is the requirement then all practitioners need to reach that standard. The fact that someone holds a designation that was provided many years ago under some dubious accreditation system that applied at the time should not excuse them from being required to meet the standard for everyone.