The Impact of International Education Standards and Continuing Professional Development on Competency Development and ESG Reporting

Abstract

This paper discusses the impact of the implementation of International Education Standards (IES) and Continued Professional Development CPD in professional accounting education on the development of competencies and readiness for sustainability reporting according revisited IES in accounting and auditing in Albania. The study is designed as a quantitative study to explore the relation between implementation of IES (IES 2-7), professional accounting education, continuing professional development (CPD), work experience, professional competencies, and ESG reporting. The data analyzed in this study were collected by distributing questionnaires among 119 accounting and auditing professionals. The analysis was carried out through Pearson correlation, linear regression, multiple regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the hypotheses raised. The results of the paper show a strong and statistically significant relationship between the implementation of IES and professional development (r=0.890, p<0.001). Continuing accounting education has a significant impact on the formation of professional competencies (R² = 0.638, p < 0.001). Work experience does not significantly affect perceptions of the implementation of the updated IES. Regarding sustainability reporting, the results show that the components of IES have a low explanatory power. Professional skills (IES 3) play a primary role in the development of competencies, but their impact plays a minor role. This implies that technical knowledge, ethics, and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) are not sufficient to explain the readiness for sustainability reporting. The study shows the existence of a considerable gap between accounting education and sustainability reporting requirements. This underlines the necessity of heading towards curricula based on practical, interdisciplinary and skills-based elements, incorporating ESG concepts. The empirical results add value to the existing literature on accounting education and professional competencies development in our country, a developing country in continuous change and global challenges. Data analysis includes an assessment of reliability and stakeholder suitability, using indicators such as Cronbach's α, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test, Barlett's test and Chi-Squared, which provide a solid basis for the construction and interpretation of the SEM model.