As a CPA Canada student, understanding the practical experience requirements (PER) is crucial for your journey towards becoming a CPA.
Two common questions I get from students is whether they can report part-time work experience or claim experience from multiple jobs simultaneously. In this blog post, I will clarify these concerns and help you better understand the CPA PER process.
Can you claim part-time work experience in PERT?
Yes, you can report your experience gained from a part-time position for CPA PER. It’s important to know that the duration of your part-time work experience will be calculated on a pro-rated basis. This is because part-time work weeks are generally below the standard full-time work week of 35 hours.
For example, if you work 20-30 hours per week in a part-time role, your experience will be adjusted accordingly when compared to a full-time position. This ensures that you receive credit for your part-time experience while maintaining a fair balance between part-time and full-time work experience.
Can you claim PERT experience from multiple jobs?
If you find yourself working multiple jobs at the same time, you may wonder if you can claim experience from both positions. You can only have one job ‘pre-assessed’ by CPA Canada at a given time to report the experience for that duration. You will not be able to claim the experience from multiple jobs if the dates for the duration from these two jobs overlap.
For example, if you work two jobs for a year, each with 40 hours per week, you might think that you can claim a total of 80 hours per week. However, this is not the case. You can only claim the experience from one of these jobs at a time.
Extra resources
Understanding the CPA Canada PERT requirements can be challenging, but it’s crucial to ensure that you’re on the right track to obtaining your designation. When it comes to part-time work and multiple jobs, keep in mind that part-time experience is counted on a pro-rated basis and you can only claim experience from one job at a time.
Extra PERT resources are available at PER Review courses.
