Is One Example Enough for PERT Enabling Competencies?

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When your CPA Canada CFE is finally over, you’ll get the time to breathe a sigh of relief and switch gears into “Practical Experience Requirements (PER) mode.” There are two key components to PER: Technical Competencies and Enabling Competencies.

Technical is the bread and butter of what you do everyday, like financial reporting analysis, prepping financial statements, tax analysis, preparing budgets and so on.

Enabling are the soft skills that are developed over time and gained through experience, like ethical issues, teamwork, communication and leadership.

Let’s take a deeper dive into Enabling Competencies in this article and understand how many examples you need to give to get completion (“Level 2”).

Understanding PER Enabling Competencies

There are five (5) Enabling Competencies in CPA PER:

  • Acting Ethically and Demonstrating Professional Values
  • Solving Problems and Adding Value
  • Communication
  • Managing Self
  • Plans and effectively manages teams and projects / Collaborates effectively as a team member

You need to write examples in all of them to graduate. Here’s a brief summary of each, with more resources available in Gevorg’s PER Review:

  • Acting Ethically and Demonstrating Professional Values: This is about tensions, conflicts and ethical issues at work. It’s not about  personal stress management issues, it has to be something that created a “dilemma”. Dilemma means the conclusion is not obvious. This means that if you have only one choice of doing the right thing, then there is no dilemma. For example, if your manager asks you to steal something from the office, obviously the right thing is not to do it, so there is no dilemma. If your manager asks you to take on extra work that’s beyond your abilities, there is a dilemma, because you now have multiple options to consider and the outcome is uncertain.
  • Solving Problems and Adding Value: This is about process improvement, enhancing a product or solving a problem. You can think of many examples, such as process improvement (eg. creating macro-based Excel tool), adapting your work due to new technology, or optimizing your workflow (eg. removing redundant tasks).
  • Communication: If you work in a small company, you are the accounting expert but your co-workers/clients are likely not CPAs. They are operations experts or middle managers, who need to understand the basics of accounting, like budget or income statement. You would write here an example of how you translated complex accounting concepts to easy-to-understand language.
  • Managing Self: Think of situations where you didn’t meet the expectations of your manager, your teammates or clients. You weren’t sure how to manage your strengths and weaknesses, and you felt disappointed. Write an example of such situation.
  • Teamwork  and Collaboration: Most jobs require people interaction. This area is about teamwork challenges or leadership issues. Here’s a brief example: During a system implementation project in my company, a cross-functional team from departments like Accounting, Internal Audit, Budgeting, and IT faced challenges in working together. Each member brought a different perspective, so meetings had frequent arguments, misalignment on goals and frustration. Some pushed for speed, others for strict compliance and few raised concerns about budget impacts. The team couldn’t agree on a direction and progress stalled. Recognizing the risk to both the project, I stepped in to address the conflict. Applying the CPA Way, I assessed the situation, analyzed alternatives and provided a conclusion. I created space for each team member to voice their concerns openly and without judgment. Over the next few weeks, the team regained momentum, worked cohesively, and successfully completed the implementation on schedule. The experience delivered results, built trust, and strengthened my organization’s culture of collaboration.

Level 2 in PER Enabling Competencies

Similar to Technical Competencies, you can get in Enabling Competencies either at Level 0, Level 1, or Level 2. Normally, the strategy to completing PER is progression. This means giving one example at-time. For example, in your report #1, you give one non-complex example and claim Level 0. In report #2, you give a second, more-complex example and claim Level 1. In report #3, you give a third, very complex example and claim Level 1. In report #4, you give your fourth and fifth complex examples and claim Level 2. 

You get the point; progression is about gradual and smooth way of claiming your experience. Once you have 3 complex examples, you get the Level 2.

Luckily, progression is not needed for Enabling.

You can give only 1 example and get Level 2

Yes, you can give just one example in Enabling and claim Level 2 right away. You don’t need to show progression or provide 3 examples. From my experience of helping hundreds of students with PER, I can say this works 90-95% of the time. Occasionally, we get a reviewer that challenges and asks you submit a second example before giving Level 2. In this case, I advise my student to submit a second example and the student gets the Level 2 at that point.

Also, you don’t have to wait for your final reports to claim this, you can claim this Level 2 as early as your report #1.

Extra resources

Check out Gevorg’s CPA PER Review, Canada’s first and only comprehensive PER coaching program that features several Level 2 examples, templates, video lessons, marking services, and support to help you pass PERT. This program recognizes your need for clear and concise content and has been designed to meet your busy schedule.