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Professional Experience
Relevant employment experience
The application of professional experience, concurrent with studying conceptual knowledge, is an integral component of developing a well-rounded professional. The freedom to obtain experience in a variety of accounting and financial-management positions is a major advantage of CGA Ontario’s program of professional studies.
Before qualifying for certification as a CGA, candidates must demonstrate that accumulated professional experience has progressed to positions that require a high degree of knowledge and responsibility. A candidate’s employment experience must be in an accounting or financial-management-related position. To meet the employment experience requirement, we recommend that when you begin the program of professional studies you are a full-time employee in a position that will allow you to progress toward acquiring sufficient experience in the accounting and financial areas.
To meet the experience requirements, candidates must be employed in a position that requires the application of knowledge and independent thinking in an accounting, auditing or financial management function. Employment experience is assessed on the basis of demonstrated competencies in leadership, professionalism, and professional knowledge. For details and examples of these three competency groups, please visit www.cga-canada.org to review the latest version of the CGA Competency Framework.
To learn more about how professional experience is assessed, check out the Professional Work Experience Requirement FAQs.
All students in the CGA program of professional studies must submit an online professional experience required for certification (PERC).
Your Career Path
In the CGA program of professional studies you earn while you learn. The CGA program is not all about books, you must fulfil the professional experience requirement as well. As a student in the CGA program you must demonstrate your ability to apply the knowledge and skills gained from the program into the workplace environment. Students are expected to assume successively higher levels of hands-on financial management responsibilities as they advance through the CGA program.
Take a look at the career path examples below, they outline the foundation, intermediate and professional level experience you need to obtain prior to becoming a certified general accountant.
These career maps should be used as guidelines as CGA Ontario recognizes that professional experience obtained outside of these guidelines may be eligible to satisfy the professional experience requirement.
