Utilising continued professional development of ethics amongst prospective chartered accountants

It is widely accepted that accounting education aims to produce competent professional accountants, who are capable of making a positive contribution to the profession and the society in which they work. The provision of a basis of ethical values should therefore be viewed as an important aspect of professional accountants’ education and training. In the face of increasing changes encountered by accountants, it becomes essential that they develop and maintain an attitude of learning to learn (i.e. Continuous Professional Development or CPD). In current times, an education programme for Chartered Accountants (CAs) needs to transcend the traditional approach that emphasised ‘transfer of knowledge’, with learning defined and measured strictly in terms of knowledge of principles, standards, concepts, facts and procedures at a particular time. This study aims to investigate the utilisation of the CPD of ethics among prospective CAs by analysing and statistically interpreting the perceptions and attitudes of a group of undergraduate students at a South African higher education institution, by means of an empirical survey. The objectives of this study are to: (i) demarcate the CA and his/her profession by studying undergraduate students’ perceptions; (ii) determine undergraduate students’ perceptions of CPD, life-long learning (LLL) and ethics, within the framework of a CA and his/her undergraduate education; (iii) investigate the perceived core values within the CA profession; and (iv) analyse specific aspects of the education and training of prospective CAs at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).Professor Thea L. Voogt Professor Ben Mar