Three years' practical experience
It doesn't matter what sector or organisation you work in – ACCA trainees work in every sector and size of organisation. What’s important is to look for the opportunities to help you meet your PER and to obtain a total of 36-months' (three years') experience in a relevant role, or roles.
Ideally, this means that you have a job where the majority of your time is spent on activities and tasks that are accounting, finance, audit and assurance related, or in other related technical areas such as taxation, insolvency, and forensics.
If your job includes only a small amount of accountancy and finance work it can count, as long as you pro rata the time you spend on these activities. For example, if only a quarter of your working time (equivalent to three months) during the year is spent in an accounting capacity, you may only claim three months as relevant time in your PER annual return. This may mean that it will take you more than three years to accumulate the relevant experience, because some of your experience is not relevant.
Your experience doesn’t have to be gained in a single role or one continuous period and relevant experience gained prior to joining ACCA may be counted, providing it can be verified by a workplace mentor.