Professional development can sometimes be an onerous task for employees, but the benefits are that employees are kept up to date with industry changes and trends. Professional development is also a great way in which employees can network with others in the industry and keep up to date with relevant legislative changes. The ABS recently sent two staff members to attend the SDA Schools NSW Training day, held at the Avondale Colleges Clinical Education Centre at Wahroonga.
This training was specifically tailored for Accountants, and was run by Grant Thornton. The day started off with an Accounting and Regulatory Update, and before you fall off your chair in boredom, the update was really important to people in the industry, making sure they are compliant with Accounting standards and the laws that surround their industry. This was followed by “Trends in Fraud, Whistleblowing Regulation and Cybersecurity” a really interesting look into some current cases of fraud, mainly due to human error. The day finished with some insights into Social Impact Reporting. For ABS staff, these updates will be taken back into the classroom for discussion with our students, making sure they are also updated also.
Networking on the day however was important for ABS as it allows us to interact with other employees from other conferences and other divisions. At this professional development day we interacted with people from schools, the health care sector and we even took this opportunity to survey staff on what they see are important graduate attributes.
As both ABS staff members are members of CPA Australia, it is compulsory for our staff to keep up to date with changes so we can implement them into the class room. So instead of your eyes rolling in the back of the head saying here we go again, when it comes to professional development, think again. This should be seen as an opportunity to connect with others in your industry, or get to know people outside of your immediate work area (collaboration), it also create awareness of the current issues in place in your industry and finally it creates curiosity – to foster creativity and new ways of thinking. So target your professional development for your staff to enable them to continue to learn and update themselves and to be more productive in the workplace.
Remember that the Avondale Business School (ABS) can provide you and your team with professional development, tailored for your needs. To find out more, contact Dr Warrick Long at [email protected].