Education & Training

The primary responsibility of every accountant is to serve the public interest first. But, as asked by the Roman poet Juvenal, 'Who will guard the guards themselves?' Who ensures accountants remain accountable? This is the function of professional accountancy organisations (PAOs), and it is the reason every accountant should be a member of such an association.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed structural weaknesses and widened inequalities across the world. Even before the pandemic, the rise of automation and innovative technologies were transforming the world of work, resulting in an urgent need for upskilling of talent.

We’re living in a world of radical shift. And yet, our education system harks back to a bygone era. I believe that not only that we are facing a great opportunity to change the way we learn, but in fact, that we need to reimagine education completely, and see it as a process of learning, unlearning and relearning, throughout our professional lives.

As the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Reports (ATR) submission deadline draws closer, employers are encouraged to make their skills development submissions as soon as possible because unlike the previous year, there will not be an automatic extension.

Business school leaders have shown their schools to have been both pragmatic and agile in the face of 2020’s disruption, according to the AMBA & BGA Education Technology Research, in association with Barco. The 216 decision makers at international business schools who completed AMBA & BGA’s research demonstrated that while, initially, they have all been reactive to the need for to adopt tech rapidly in the face of social distancing.

Lack of peer contact and motivation have emerged as two of the key challenges that faced higher education students last year after institutions took teaching online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, a survey has shown.

Although the strategy of digitisation and digital transformation had loosely formed ‘part’ of organisational growth strategies, it was not until the COVID-19 pandemic - where the entire world was forced to stay, and work from home, that ‘digital’ took centre stage.

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has submitted its preliminary Critical Skills List to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for review. The list is publicly available from the DHET’s website and companies should start reviewing it in anticipation of a round of public commentary before it is finalised.

Thanks to the global pandemic and savvy, forward-thinking key-decision makers, many businesses have embraced e-learning to ensure they remain competitive. The global consultancy firm McKinsey observed that business learnings were one of the most affected activities when lockdown was implemented, as almost 100% of in-person programmes were cancelled or postponed as a measure to curb the spread of COVID-19.

This article by Graeme Codrington is about what is needed to unlock what the future holds for tertiary education, learning and professional development in the aftermath of COVID-19, and is the second part of a five-part series on the Future of Education run by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).