Practical Experience Programme

Gaining practical experience is a vital step in qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (CA), Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) or Accounting Technician (AT). You'll not only have the opportunity to apply academic knowledge, you'll develop the professional skills that will make you stand out from the rest.

General practical experience

General practical experience introduces you to the accounting work environment while providing the hands-on training you'll need to complement your academic study.

To meet the membership requirements, you'll need to complete 12 months of relevant full-time work before, during or after academic study. You can gain your general practical experience during full-time continuous employment with a single employer or over a 48-month period with no more than three employers.

Having your general practical experience recognised

You can apply to have your experience recognised when you apply for provisional membership or after you become a provisional member.

Download the Certificate of General Practical Experience (PDF, 256 KB)

Specified practical experience

Specified practical experience for intending CA, ACA and AT candidates must be completed under the guidance of an NZICA-registered mentor. If you're a CA or an ACA candidate, you'll need to gain specified practical experience at an Approved Training Organisation (ATO).We recommend registering as a provisional member before starting this component.

Before you can start your specified practical experience, you'll need to complete:

relevant academic study
twelve months of approved general practical experience.

To acquire the technical competency required for a career in accountancy, you can gain specified practical experience in accounting information systems, auditing, external reporting, financial management, insolvency and reconstructions, management accounting and taxation.

In addition to the above, you will also need to develop non-technical competency in communication and interpersonal skills, decision making (CA and ACA candidates), exercising ethical behaviour, organisation skills, problem solving (AT candidates)research and evaluation and teamwork.

Are you a teacher, lecturer or academic?

View the specified practical experience requirements for those that work in an academic environment.

Training logs

We've prepared training logs to help you understand the experience requirements for admission as a full NZICA member. They explain in greater detail our admissions policy, the competencies you must demonstrate, the mentoring process, and the pathway you’ll need to follow to apply for admission as a CA, ACA, or AT.

Read the CA and ACA Training Log (PDF, 999 KB)

Read the AT Training Log (PDF, 864 KB)