Dates and location
Hours
Dates and location
Hours
Description
This course is the first phase of a three-part Career Skills Program entitled ‘Building A Powerful Professional Brand’. This phase is designed for CPA students in months 0-6 of their practical experience journey.
This first phase focuses on enhancing key skills such as effective communication, personal efficiency and deadline management. Students will explore how to apply project management principles for better prioritization and productivity. Critical thinking, particularly in ethics and business analysis will also be discussed. Students will also gain proficiency in Excel functions and learn how to adhere to double-entry accounting principles for recording common business transactions.
There will be a series of live in-person workshops and self-paced learning designed to help CPA students acclimatize to life in a professional environment. Students will benefit from coaching on how to show up professionally to their key stakeholders.
Students may benefit from employer reimbursement. You can either click on the Speak to an Advisor button to learn more or download the Employer Request Letter below.
Program experience will include:
- Instructor-led case study discussions
- Real world practical simulation exercises
- Collaborative peer learning teams
- Pre and post training assessments
- Networking opportunities
- Workshops and role plays
Note: You can find the other program phases and the full program below here:
Group Discount: For groups of 5 students or more, a 15% group discount will apply. If you are a firm that has less than 5 students, please speak to an advisor who can help pair you with another organization so that a consortium of smaller firms can avail of the 15% discount.
For firms with groups of 25 or more, CPA Ontario can deliver the program exclusively for your staff.
Speak to an Advisor
To speak to an advisor, please fill out this form.
Schedule
| Date | Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| September 16, 2025 | 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | Introduction / Opening Remarks |
|
9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
Effective Communication
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| 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. |
Act with Ownership and Accountability
|
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| September 17, 2025 |
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. |
Time Management
|
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11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
Critical Thinking (Part 1)
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|
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1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. |
Critical Thinking (Part 2)
|
|
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2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. |
CPA Canada Handbook
Note: Please bring your laptop to this session. |
|
| September 18, 2025 |
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
Financial Statement Analysis (Part 1)
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1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. |
Financial Statement Analysis (Part 2)
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2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. |
Professional Ethics in the Workplace
|
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| September 19, 2025 |
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
Introduction to Microsoft Excel for CPA Students
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1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. |
Journal Entries
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| September 20, 2025 – January 3, 2026 |
4 Hours of Self-Paced Learning |
Microsoft Excel 2021: Basic (Free On Demand Course) On completion of this course, you will be able to:
This course comes with a downloadable learner guide, quick reference guide and practice files. |
Key Takeaways
During this course, participants will learn how to:
- Communicate effectively with key stakeholders.
- Improve personal efficiency (including adherence to key deadlines).
- Use project management principles to improve prioritization skills, productivity and focus.
- Identify and imbibe the qualities of critical thinkers.
- Analyze the profitability, efficiency, cash flow, and value of a business.
- Develop your critical thinking skills about ethics in the workplace.
- Use key Excel functions, formatting, and overall navigation.
- Adhere to Double-Entry accounting principles and recording common business transactions.
Who Will Benefit
This program is primarily aimed at CPA students in public accounting firms who are new to the workforce and learning how to adapt to the challenges and motivations of a professional environment. A secondary audience who could benefit include junior CPA aspirants who have 1-3 years of work experience already.
Need Approval to Attend
Attendance Requirements
To earn your CPD hours you must attend 3 of 4 live sessions. We understand that sometimes unplanned absences happen. Please reach out to our Operations Team if you're unable to attend a session as scheduled.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the course are non-authoritative and have not been formally endorsed by CPA Ontario and do not reflect the views of CPA Ontario. The information included in the course is for general information purposes only.
CPA Ontario, the presenters and the authors do not accept any responsibility or liability that might occur directly or indirectly as a consequence of the use or application of or reliance on this material.
How to Access the Course
We're pleased to invite you to register for our Certificate courses. Whether or not you're a CPA, you're more than welcome to join us on this learning journey. To get started, you'll need to create an account. Don't worry if you don't have a CPA Ontario ID yet; you can easily set up your account right here. Let's begin your learning adventure together.
This CPA Ontario course is a hybrid certificate program, with in person instruction and on demand learning. This is an in person event and you must attend the event in person to receive verifiable CPD hours.
To access the course please visit our BlackBoard site, and log-in using the same login and password used for the Registration Portal.
Please allow up to 15 minutes after registration for the certificate program to appear on your BlackBoard page.
Registration, cancellation, withdrawal and all other CPA Ontario PD policies can be found here.
Speaker(s)
| SPEAKERS | |
|---|---|
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Ryan Standil leads seminars on the topic of effective written communication. He teaches at CPA Ontario, the Law Society of Ontario, individual firms, large corporations, and government organizations. Ryan attended Western University, where he graduated from the Ivey Business School and the Faculty of Law. After graduating, Ryan joined a corporate law firm in Toronto. Today he owns and operates a seminar company, called Write To Excite. Ryan’s mission is to help professionals grow their income by improving their writing. His column in The Globe and Mail discusses the relationship between income and writing: https://www.writetoexcite.com/globeandmail. |
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Kamya Mehra, CPA is a speaker with over 8 years of various work experiences ranging in areas of finance, audit quality assurance, external audit, corporate accounting, financial reporting, corporate and personal taxes. She currently works in the Regulatory Risk Governance team at Scotiabank. Kamya is passionate about learning and development and enjoys mentoring and coaching students. |
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Jane M. Bowen, FCPA, FCA, has been involved in professional development and education for Members and students for many years. She currently lectures in financial accounting and audit at UOIT in Oshawa. She authors or mentors courses in this professional development program, and has contributed to CPA Canada publications: Guide to Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (GASPE); and Guide to International Financial Reporting Standards in Canada. Jane is currently the Chair of the CPA Canada Competency Map and often authors publications issued by CPA Canada’s Research Guidance and Support Group., addressing the implementation of new accounting and assurance standards. |
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Dr. Krista Fiolleau, CPA PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, School of Accounting and Finance. She joined the school in 2012 after completing her PhD at the University of Alberta. Her published and current research focuses on the effect of organizational controls and governance on ethical reasoning, and accounting ethics and the influence of corporate governance on auditor effectiveness. Through her work as Director of the Centre for Accounting Ethics she speaks and facilitates conferences on ethics research and teaching. |
| Paul Mascarenhas, BSc. MBA., President of Avancer Learning Inc., is a specialist in Strategic Analysis, and Communications. Paul has conducted his much sought after brand of hands-on IT Skills workshops, to globally renowned names as the Canadian Forces, Canadian Tire, Carlson Wagonlit, SKF Bearings (I) Ltd, CGI Inc, Scotiabank, Colgate Palmolive GSSO, Tetra Pak (I), ICICI Prudential, to name a few. | |
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Hassan Khalid is a Risk Assurance professional specializing in Controls Assurance, IT Assurance, Third Party Assurance, Project Assurance and Advisory. He has a strong background in systems and process assurance, advising clients on the management of risks associated with the implementation and operation of complex business systems and information technology. With 17 years of controls, risk, audit and assurance experience at Big 4 firms (KPMG and PwC) and entrepreneurship of 2 years in software development Hassan is passionate about client service. He takes immense pride in the quality of his work and enjoys his relationships with the clients where he is seen as a trusted advisor to foster and strengthen their controls and processes on a continuous basis. He has had the exposure to sophisticated controls, processes and systems by working on a wide variety of medium to large multinational organizations. He adds value to the clients by bringing those insights to the table that matter and resonate with their circumstances. |
