Establishment

Creating a Professional Accounting Body

The Institute of Incorporated Public Accountants was incorporated with the Companies Registration Office on 17th November 1981, and is one of Irelands six Recognised Accounting Bodies regulated by the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA). From humble beginnings the Institute has grown to be one of the key players in the Irish Accounting and Auditing Industry, differentiating ourselves from the other Accounting Bodies by focusing on the provision of professionals specialising in the Small and Medium Business Sector.

One of the first thing that the Institute did once established, it developed its Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program decades ahead of all of the other Professional Accounting Bodies in Ireland. This helped to ensure that our members customers have always received the highest level of professional service.

Professional Accounting Body

Professional Services for the SME Sector

The Institute is a "Professional Accounting Body" - but what does this mean? It means that the Institute is a membership based organisation that educates, certifies, regulates and develops accountants and auditors. In order to do this we have a number of structures including:

• Education and Training
• Continuing Professional Development
• Technical Standards
• Membership
• Practice
• Investigations
• Discipline
• Professional Standards

Recognised Accounting Body

Authorised to Issue Audit Practice Certificates

The Institute then went on to achieve the coveted status of Recognised Accounting Body. This means that, in addition to training and regulating the work of our members as accountants, we are also approved by government to issue Audit Practice Certificates. Approving accountants as to operate as "Registered Auditors" is regulated by the Companies Acts, and only certain accounting bodies are approved to issue Audit Practice Certificates. Members of our Institute have the widest range of opportunities to choose where in the Accounting and Finance Industry they want to work. This makes the IIPA a very attractive option for those who wish to work in accounting or finance.

Education

Developing new experiences

At the IIPA we have been providing education for many years through our affiliated colleges and distance learning. We are now entering confidently into the future of education and training by being the very first professional accounting body in the world to offer its complete accounting qualification online. Beginning in September 2008, students will be able to study to become an accountant entirely online (although exams will continue to be organised in the traditional manner for the moment). We are very serious about this initiative and have established it under the name the "Institute of Finance Training" (IFT) - which we anticipate will become our key mechanism for delivering the training and development programs of our Institute into the future.

You can have a peek into what we will be offering at our dedicated training and development website - www.financetraining.ie - where we have already started to offer some of our CPD program. We are using an open source, state of the art solution called Moodle. Moodle is used by many of the largest educational institutions, both nationally and internationally. It allows teachers and lecturers to develop rich, engaging, and educationally sound course material. Students are immersed into their education because the tool allows the widest use of media including:

• Video and Audio Lectures
• Slideshows
• Interactive learning materials
• Links out to useful information
• Documentaries
• Online Activities and Assignments
• Bulletin boards that allow students and lecturers interact
• Quizes, and many other options

Open Courseware Initiative

Joining a movement

The Institute has embraced the use of open source and creative commons approaches and solutions wherever possible. To that end we will be opening up our Courseware to all interested parties wherever possible. Massachusetts Institute of Technology pioneered this new approach to openness in education, and it is a model that has been embraced by many education institutions throughout the world. Open Courseware (OCW) has already attracted many participants among the most prestigious educational establishments in the world.

We will also issue as much of our materials under the creative commons 3.0 licence which allows a certain amount of flexibility in how you might choose to use our materials. All we ask is that where our materials are adapted and used elsewhere, the IIPA are recognised as having contributed the materials, and that the resultant works are released under the same licence.

Broader Range of Offerings

Building the skills base of the accounting and finance sector

Here at the IIPA, we are currently developing a range of training and education programs that will contribute to driving up the knowledge and skills within the industry. This will be delivered through our dedicated training and education initiative, the Institute of Finance Training. We believe that there needs to be a broad range of training and education available to drive this initiative, so we will be developing a range of programs and making them available online. These will include:

• Short, subject specific training interventions (3 hours or less)
• Single modules from our professional qualification including certification accredited by the IIPA
• A three module certificate in finance
• Incorporated Public Accounting Technician (6 modules)
• Incorporated Fund Accounting Technician (6 modules)
• Diploma in Finance (10 Modules)
• Incorporated Fund Accountant (10 modules)
• Incorporated Public Accountant (14 modules)
• Higher Diploma in Audit Practice (4 modules) - Audit qualification for Professional Accountants, leading to an Audit Practice Certificate.