design & development

Course details

Once registration and accreditation with SAICA is complete, it is vital that the organization undertakes a rigorous assessment of all training opportunities within the organization and elsewhere that would contribute to the trainee’s development as a CA. This involves a multi-step process, for which we have developed a unique approach, innovative methodology, and data capturing templates. This is referred to as the Atcor TOPP Resource Audit.

• Step 1 includes Atcor conducting an internal TOPP marketing and awareness presentation to all stakeholders, creating a forum for discussion, highlighting the benefits of TOPP and the common pitfalls. During this session, TOPP stakeholders are educated on the basics of TOPP and taken through the SAICA training requirements and processes.
• Step 2 involves a series of workshops and focus group sessions with key pisions within the organization. Stakeholders are provided with Atcor templates to assist in developing potential training plans and the range and depth of experience available in each part of the organization is debated and discussed in a group format. The organizational review of training capabilities is achieved by:

1. Atco information template
2. Workshops
3. Focus group interviews
4. One on rone interviews

The output from step 2 is a consolidated overall resource plan for the programme. This is then analysed and the following key outputs are generated from Step 3:

• Individual trainee rotation plans
• Gaps or shortfalls in training experience

The gaps in training experience offered by the organization may be addressed through the following alternatives:

• Secondment to external entities
• Supplementary practical workshops/simulations

SAICA allows for up to 30% of all training experience to be covered by simulation. In addition up to 3 months of the training contract may be allocated to a secondment partner and up to 6 months if the secondment partner is also a registered ATO.

• As Step 4 indicates, Atcor is able to develop customized in-house simulation focusing on training gaps for trainees and also runs public workshops on pre-defined and common training gaps.

The following services are also included in the output from the design and development phase:

• Trainee inductions
• Supervisor inductions
• Mentor inductions
• Training officer accreditation and assessor training
• Reviewer workshops

The design and development phase includes a comprehensive rotation plans that:

• Detail each trainee’s activity per each week of the 3 year contract
• Highlight each department/pision contribution and timing
• Allocate secondments and simulation
• Factor in study leave
• Identify relevant supervisors and their responsibilities
• Diarize assessment dates and deliverables

Another key output from this phase is the comprehensive Atcor TOPP manual that is customized for each client and contains an electronic breakdown of the “A to Z of TOPP”. An example of the contents of the TOPP manual is detailed below:

• Introduction to TOPP
• SAICA Training Requirements
• Client Group Structure
• Reporting Structures
• Group Accounting pisions
• TOPP Programme Design
• Trainee Allocation to pisions
• Programme Implementation
• Simulations
• Mentors
• Policies & Procedures
• Roles & Responsibilities
• Assessment Process & Documentation
• SAICA Educational Requirements
• Code of Professional Conduct