CIMA PER: Practical Experience Requirements
What exactly is PER you might say?
It’s about fulfilling the practical experience that is required in order to be considered a competent chartered global management accountant.As a CIMA student/member you’ll need to have 3 years relevant work experience under your belt and fulfil a certain criteria that is measured by the CGMA Competency Framework (more on that later…).As a student you’ll need to submit the relevant work experience using the MAT Membership Application Tool – here you will record your practical experience against the CGMA competency framework – it will need to verified by your line manager or something at who can prove you fulfilled the criteria.Finally, once you’ve passed the SCS exam, it will be assessed by CIMA to determine whether you have gained the sufficient experience and then be awarded the CGMA designation.
When do I need to take action?
I imagine most student’s leave this part until they have passed the final exam and then realise they need to submit their PER.However, you can begin to complete the PER as soon as you begin studying CIMA – as long as you have demonstrated the professional experience in the workplace.And that’s something I have started to myself since researching this blog post as it will save time when I do finally complete the strategic level.As well as reading this article, I would suggest you to take a look at the official CIMA PER Guidance here – this will explain in detail;
What is PER and why it’s required?
The CGMA Competency Framework.
The criteria you need to fulfil.
How the MAT (Membership Application Tool) works.
FAQ’s
In summary, I would suggest all students (especially those with 3+ years’ experience in finance) to start your PER now and document your practical experiences in line with the CGMA competency framework.
Not only will you be a step ahead when you complete the strategic level, recording the experience as and when we complete it will ensure its accuracy and help the verification process.
How do I take action?
Let’s take a look first at the CGMA Competency Framework to see what kind of practical experiences we need to submit and get verified.
The hierarchy of the CGMA competency framework is split into four levels with Level 1 based are the four knowledge areas which we are already familiar with from our case study exams (see the core in diagram below);
