Chartered accountants are committed to maintaining the highest professional standards and this is underpinned by the ICAEW's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) policy. Based on the strong ethical training chartered accountants undertake, the CPD programme supports regular training and knowledge-gathering applicable to the work of all members. This encourages professional success and reassures the public that all ICAEW members keep up to date, thus helping maintain and enhance public confidence. Through this initiative our members can show they are part of a community of finance professionals, operating with the highest standards of integrity and expertise. Activities can be chosen that best suit development needs, ranging from attending conferences, learning at work and technical reading to interaction with experts. The aim is to develop business awareness, technical and functional expertise and personal effectiveness, enabling ICAEW members to keep their professional knowledge and experience up to date. The technical and professional environment of the chartered accountant is constantly changing. To protect the competitive advantage secured by holding the institute's ACA qualification, our members use their CPD programme to develop and enhance skills, knowledge and competencies. Chartered accountants are asked to declare annually that they have undertaken the professional development activities required by their role. They receive great support from the institute, primarily through an extensive website of information (www.icaew.com/cpd). This provides a variety of material, including ethics guidance and member experiences, as well as enabling online recording of CPD. Designed to fit easily into normal day-to-day work and learning, the CPD requirements now apply to chartered accountants in business as well as those in practice. To reflect this, many of our professional courses in the North-East and Cumbria are being targeted at business members to help them build their CPD programmes. As well as maintaining technical competence - for example, in areas such as taxation, audit, corporate finance and insolvency - ICAEW members are also expected to develop communication and management skills, ethical and business awareness and legal and regulatory knowledge. The Northern Society of Chartered Accountants has provided accounts and tax courses for many years, expanding recently to cover both technical matters and "soft skills". Attendance is increasing year on year, confirming that topics offered are meeting the needs of members and that training is recognised as an important part of professional development. The courses shown here in the events diary, available to members and non-members alike, are a popular and valuable source of training for the finance professional in the region. Experience shows that CPD is beneficial for all members, confirming to others the enduring quality of the ICAEW qualification. Keith Proudfoot is regional director of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) | 
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