Continuing Professional Development of Certified Public Accountants in Lucena City: Evaluation

Learning is an increasingly vital element of growth as Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are facing more career transitions in their practice to cope with the ever-changing corporate environment. The practice of accounting in the Philippines has an accreditation process that requires CPAs to undergo Continuing Professional Development (CPD) as an avenue to uphold competence in their professional practice. However, despite the means to maintain proficiency, number of CPAs still find it a mere requirement of the laws and gives no substantial impact. This motivated the researchers to look into the contribution of CPD with regard to the subjects’ career development, improvement of financial condition, development of professional networks and enhancement of personal competencies. Through a questionnaire answered by 77 practicing CPAs in Lucena City, the study evaluated the CPD by identifying frequent learning activities engagement, alongside with the providers, financial implication and relevance of the implementation. The study ranked the enabling factors that allow the CPAs to engage in CPD activities as well as the barriers in pursuing such. The statistical treatments employed are frequency, weighted mean, T-Test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Finally, it determined the significance difference between the levels of contribution to career advancement. Further, the study found out that the contribution of CPD as to career development and financial income is negligible and the impact is substantial with respect to professional network and personal competencies