Hi

As a chartered accountant I am required to carry out continuing professional development (CPD) training to retain my licence to practise. I was recently notified by my regulator, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, of their enhanced CPD requirements to ensure, in the words of the president of the ICAEW, “our members are competent to provide the best advice and the best service to clients.”

Naturally I was intrigued to learn how much annual CPD I should be doing to meet the Institute's minimum requirement. Let me guess, probably 10 -15 hours per month?

So you'll be as surprised, as I was, to learn that I'm only required to undertake 20 hours of CPD annually! No wonder the ability of accountants to provide little more than a basic compliance service is woefully poor. And – spoiler alert – that work will be taken over by Robotic Process Automation in the near future.

So when I saw that Jason Calacanis, the internet entrepreneur, said “You’re either busy learning or you’re being replaced – this is not a drill” it resonated.

I have long been an advocate of continuous learning; people who see themselves as permanent students tend to be far more aware of what is going on around them in technology, business, finance and demographics. 

It is still quite rare for businesses to show much imagination in addressing the rapid acceleration of skills that are needed across many sectors. We need to ask, is it you or your employer, if you have one, who is responsible for your skills development?

If we are to keep up with the pace of change we need to commit to lifelong learning in our own time as well as business hours; it cannot be only the responsibility of employers. It is time to rethink dramatically how to prepare yourself for the next decade. 

Which brings me to today’s current hot topic of artificial intelligence.. Last weekend I spent a day in the company of Nigel Botterill who has invested a huge number of hours learning about the latest developments in AI, which he was kind enough to share with me, and hundreds of others, at an all-day workshop. 

And I’ve read blogs, listened to podcasts and watched webinars about the latest AI releases, of which there are hundreds – AI isn’t just about ChatGPT, but actually testing out the products being created is the best way to comprehend what is being unleashed. I took a test drive of the top apps recommended by Nigel and it was eye-opening.

I am sure most of us would like to have more time for learning; but if the regulator of my profession thinks that 20 hours, less than 2 hours per month, is enough to enable its members to be 'competent to provide the best advice and the best service to clients' they are sadly deluded. I aim for that target every month through a combination of online courses, workshops, webinars, podcasts and reading.

Remember that if the rate of change outside your business is faster than the rate of change inside your business, you'll soon be out of business. Challenge your teams to come up with ways that AI can make them more efficient, productive or valuable this year.

To your success.

Noel Guilford

PS I have 3 one-to-one coaching slots opening up; if you – or someone you know – wants to have a conversation to see if we can get you some more fun, flow and freedom in your business book a call with me here.