CPE for CPAs is easier than ever before now that things have migrated onto the great WWW! Advanced technology makes the old-fashioned correspondence courses of the past a veritable joy to take in comparison by offering near-instantaneous feedback and audio-visual stimuli to encourage learning retention (not to mention interest!). It’s not easy to be a CPA, and having to undergo CPE for CPAs for the rest of one’s career is a major reason why not! But then again, these professionals don’t get paid the big bucks for nothing, do they!
Thankfully, formerly dry courses are much more tolerable, at the least, than they ever were on account of all the multimedia features available today.
Being a professional of any kind involves rigorous continual study, but a CPA may have it worse than others in that tax laws are changing all the time. In order to ensure a minimum standard of quality in the profession, certifying bodies have long required CPE for CPAs. This is supposed to protect consumers of professional accounting services, but in practice it’s certainly made for one more chore in a CPA’s professional development!
After all’s said and done, however, the situation is not quite so dire. While many accountants tend to join with doctors and lawyers in bemoaning their chosen field, many continue with their work not due to feeling trapped but because they relish the social status accorded, if nothing else. And “new blood” continues to enter the ranks every year so that those who are burned-out and chose an early retirement from the profession just so happen to be replaced at just the right time! In any case, continuing education is a fact of professional life these days, with even the likes of personal fitness trainers and masseuses having to take it up, so that’s just how things are.