Practical experience supervisors

A practical experience supervisor is an individual who supports your development in the workplace and reviews your progress and performance at work.

Selecting the right person to support you with the PER is a fundamental part of the process.

What does a supervisor do?

Your practical experience supervisor should guide and support you by:

• helping you identify which performance objectives you should aim to achieve
• setting performance targets and timescales  
• providing access to appropriate work experience and supporting your development, for example arranging job rotations, project work or other opportunities for you to gain relevant experience
• evaluating and reviewing your progress on a regular basis
• signing off the performance objectives you've achieved
• signing off the time in a relevant role you're claiming towards the 36 months requirement.

It's important that your supervisor has the knowledge and experience to support you as they're responsible for verifying you've met the practical experience requirement - so it's essential they have the expertise to do this.

For more information on the role and responsibilities of a practical experience supervisor and the personal and organisation's benefit undertaking this role can bring, download the Become a Practical Experience Supervisor guide (PDF, 71KB). 

Who can be your supervisor?

In most cases your practical experience supervisor will be your line manager or the person you report to on particular projects or activities.

In order to sign off your performance objectives your practical experience supervisor should be someone who:

• is a qualified accountant*
• works closely with you
• knows your work.

* A qualified accountant is a member of an IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) member body and/or recognised by law in your country.

If your line manager is not qualified they can still sign-off your time in a relevant role and you'll need to nominate an additional qualified supervisor to sign-off your objectives. This additional supervisor could be another manager within the organisation, a consultant or the organisation's external accountants or auditors who will work with your line manager to validate your experience. Your additional supervisor must have a business connection to your employer or organisation.

Multiple practical experience supervisors

You may have more than one supervisor - or several different supervisors over a period of time - who are responsible for helping you to achieve different performance objectives.

Friends and family

Where possible you should not have a friend or relative as your practical experience supervisor to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Where this is not possible, you should disclose the relationship to ACCA when you are applying for admission to membership.