By Richard Johnstone in Rome | 11 November 2014

New education standards for accountants being rolled out from next year are intended to learn the lessons from both the 2008 financial crash and the subsequent sovereign debt crisis, the World Congress of Accounts has been told.

Speaking to delegates, Edward Kieswetter, deputy chair of the International Accounting Education Standards Board, said that the impact of the crash had been taken into account in the way the new standards aim to ‘amplify beyond the technical competencies onto the other strategic and critical behavioral competencies’.

Specifically, he highlighted that the eight new standards being introduced by the IAESB, which are intended to be effective from next July, focus on ethical orientation and values.

‘I think that is an acknowledgment that none of those failures happened necessarily of technical deficiencies but more because of the later two,’ he told delegates.

Also speaking at the event was Adrian Pulham, CIPFA’s education and membership director and a technical adviser to IAESB. He said it was critical that the new education standards help to embed IPSAS into training and professional development for public sector accountants.

‘Until we get governments properly reporting on an accruals basis, we won’t be able properly to assess the performance of states in terms of managing their finances on a like-for-like basis.

‘I think it’s critical that accounting educators grapple with that challenge understand it and realise that they have to build it into their curriculum as they work to design their new syllabus,’ he said.

‘I know its a tough call, but not as tough as what so many people who have been living through as a result of that poor reporting and what might happen in the future if it happens again.’