CPA Atlantic School of Business strives to give candidates a positive impression throughout their CPA journey. Having a successful mentor plays a key role. Candidates that are supported by strong mentors are more likely to feel a connection to the profession and become strong mentors themselves in the future.
Ready to get started? You can use the links below to quickly navigate the page.
- The Mentor Process
- CPA Practical Experience Requirements
- Expectations of a mentor and their mentee
- Mentor Meetings
- Mentor Resources
What makes a successful mentor
- Active listening skills
- Willingness to share knowledge and provide constructive feedback
- Respecting your mentee’s goals, values, perspectives
- Commitment to fostering a supportive and trusting mentorship relationship
- Willingness to meet with your mentee regularly
Guidelines for Effective Mentorship:
- Mentors should plan and dedicate about 15 hours per year, per mentee.
- Plan meetings ahead of time
- Meet at least twice a year for the duration of their mentee’s experience
- Be available and prepare your time in advance
- Understand the practical experience requirements
- Reporting requirements
- Technical competencies
- Enabling competencies
- Be mindful of your mentee’s reporting requirements
- Are they responding correctly, identifying enough examples, showing progression
- Are their reports up to date?
- Are they meeting their expected competencies?
- Provide leadership and guidance as a professional CPA
- Code of conduct
- Ethics
- Professional behavior
- Maintain a high level of confidentiality
Remember, as a mentor you are shaping these candidates as future CPAs . Teaching them professional behaviour is a key aspect of being a CPA.
The mentorship process
All mentors will have their own unique way of mentoring, based on the type of mentorship they have with their mentee.
While we want mentors to maintain that freedom, we have provided the CPA requirements for practical experience and some guidelines of expectations below.
1. You’ve been approved as a CPA Mentor
- Familiarize yourself with the CPA competencies and proficiencies
- Familiarize yourself with using the CPA Way to address the enabling competencies
- Understand the expectations of mentorship for yourself and your mentee
2. Establish a relationship with your CPA Candidate
- Plan an introductory meeting to establish expectations
- Get to know each other- discuss past work/education experience
- Develop a plan for the candidate to have their reports completed semi-annually and for the both of you to meet
3. Meet with your mentee semi-annually
- Discuss your mentee’s current progress and experience within this reporting period
- Provide guidance and relate your experience
- Review any enabling competencies using the CPA way
- Develop future goals
4. Document your meetings in PERT
- In PERT, document the meeting for your mentee
- Provide a brief summary of the discussion you and your mentee had
- Identify any next steps or action items
- Highlight any areas of excellence and identify any areas of concern
CPA Practical Experience Requirements
Candidates are expected to be employed in a relevant position where:
- They will be able to gain at least 30 months professional accounting experience within the workforce
- Complete semi-annual reports, demonstrating proficiency in:
- Specific technical competencies to meet core, depth and breadth
- Enabling competencies that pinpoint professional and ethical behaviour as a professional CPA
We recommend that mentors review the documents mentioned below for a broader understanding
- Guiding Questions for technical competencies to understand the content that relates to each main technical competency and their sub-competencies
- Coming soon: CPA Atlantic School of Business: Guide to understanding technical and enabling competencies. This guide will advise you on how your mentee/candidate’s specific tasks/duties tie into the technical competencies and their sub-competencies to meet core, depth and breadth, and how to correctly respond to the enabling competencies using the CPA Way and specific tips for a successful report.
Other resources regarding the practical experience requirements, policies, PERT guides and more can be found at CPA Canada’s Practical Experience Resource Centre
Expectations of a mentor and their mentee
Mentee’s Role
- Respect your mentor’s time
- Schedule or arrange a day and time to meet with your mentor
- Mentees are responsible to remain engaged with their mentors
- Initiate all mentor meetings
- Drive and set the agendas for each meeting
- Come prepared
- Review the reports they have created prior to your meeting
- Prepare any questions they may have relating to their experience or experience report
- Expect feedback from their mentor
- Act in a professional manner
Mentor’s Role
- Be available
- Meet with your mentee within an appropriate time
- Encourage your mentee to maintain their reporting and meeting schedule
- Be inspiring and help encourage self-reflection and strengthen the quality of their mentee’s thought process
- Provide constructive dialogue and feedback to aid the growth process
- Complete the mentor meeting requirements in PERT within a reasonable amount of time
- Best practice is to document your meeting within 15 days
- Maintain a high level of confidentiality
CPA Mentors are not expected to:
- Verify the accuracy of the mentee’s /candidate’s self-assessments or competency development
- Tutor CPA students/candidates or assist in their academics. Including: progress in pre-requisite education, CPA Professional Education Program, or CPA evaluations
- Find jobs for CPA students/candidates
Mentor Meetings
Introductory Meeting
- Your mentee should be scheduling this meeting shortly after identifying you as their mentor, and within their first 3 months of starting PEP/activating their PER start date
- This meeting is meant for you and your mentee to get to know each other
- Discuss past work experiences, education/achievements, future goals
- Set expectations
- Decide the best way for you and your mentee to communicate
- Email, text, phone
- Decide what works best for you and your mentee on meeting
- Phone, virtually, in person
- Decide the best way for you and your mentee to communicate
- Develop a plan
- Schedule your meetings in advance
- Set future dates to help manage your candidates timeline in finalizing their reports and meeting the practical experience requirements
- Schedule your meetings in advance
After the introductory meeting, mentors should expect to hear from their mentees semi-annually as per the practical experience requirements.
***CPA Candidates are required to complete a report and meet with their mentor semi-annually. Any missed mentor meetings can result in a months penalty for durationÂ
Candidates will create a report, have it set to verified and request a mentor meeting through PERT. Mentors receive an automatic email from PERT with a link to the candidates report letting them know they are requesting a meeting. It is the responsibility of the candidate to reach out via email to the mentor directly to set up a day and time to meet.
Candidates reports should include technical competencies for that specific reporting period. Candidates are encouraged to complete at least one or two enabling competencies per report, but is not required to have any completed, so long they are all completed and to a level 2 by the end of their 30 months.
- 1st Semi-annual Meeting
- Candidate should schedule this meeting within the first 6 months of start PEP/ activating their PER start date
- 2nd Mandatory Meeting
- Candidate should schedule this meeting within the first 12 months of start PEP/ activating their PER start date
- 3rd Mandatory meeting
-
- Candidate should schedule this meeting within the first 18 months of start PEP/ activating their PER start date
- Final Meeting
-
- Candidate should schedule this meeting around their 30 month markDiscuss the final steps on meeting the final requirements Finalize the mentoring process
Depending on a candidate’s prior experience (and the amount of that experience), the timelines from 18 months onward may vary slightly.
Preparing for your mentor meetings
Prior to your scheduled meetings, mentors should review the candidates report(s). review the steps in the PERT: CPA Mentor Review User Guide to access your mentee’s PERT profile from your Mentor portal, or through the link sent by the automatic email and open for review.
- Are the responses for their technical competencies robust?
- Does the responses align with the candidate’s duties and appropriate sub-competency?
- Are the enabling competencies answered using the CPA Way?
- Make note of any comments left by the reviewer
What to include in your meetings
Each mentor meeting should consist of:
- Discussing current progress and experience within this reporting period
- Encourage constructive dialogueProvide feedbackEncourage your mentee/candidate to reflect on their impact, decisions, and what they learned
- Discuss any comments from the reviewer
- Discuss next steps
- Is there anything specific the candidate needs to work on or update for this report or the next reporting period
- Develop future goals
- Are there any areas of technical and/or enabling competencies the mentee needs to focus on for completion?
Document any unresolved competency development concerns
CPA mentors are required to document any unresolved competency development concerns within the CPA experience reporting tool, but are not responsible if the candidate does not develop competencies as expected.
What can mentors do if they encounter an issue like this?
Mentors are encouraged to document any area a candidate is struggling with as part of their documented meeting.
Mentors can also reach out to CPA Atlantic School of Business Practical Experience Team to discuss any concerns, as well as bring the concerns to either a candidates program leader or program manager if part of a pre-approved program.
Documenting the meeting in PERT
Review the steps in the PERT: CPA Mentor Review User Guide to access your mentee’s PERT profile from your mentor portal or the link from the automatic email, and log the meeting under the Mentor Meeting tab of your mentees PERT page. Ensure to include any notes or actions for your mentee.
Mentor meeting checklist
- Have you and your mentee completed an introductory meeting to set expectations and make a plan?
- Does your candidate have any prior experience to discuss with you?
- Has your mentee shared their CPA Practical Experience Plan with you?
- Has the candidate completed an up-to-date report, and it’s set to be verified?
- Has your candidate brought forward any concerns or questions?
- Have you highlighted areas of success, concern, or require updates for your candidate?