Welcome to Chartered Accountants Ireland
We welcome you as a student at the Institute and wish you success in your studies.
FAE course information
The following provides comprehensive details of what you’ll need to know for the upcoming academic year 2023/24. The team are here to guide and support you throughout the year, and if you need more information please do get in touch.
For more information on course delivery please visit our Student FAQs page here.
FAE Learning Principle
Competency Statement
The competency statement is created by the examinations team and outlines the knowledge and skills examinable for the FAE. A summary of changes to the FAE competency statement for 23/24 is also provided by the team. Both documents will be available online within the Learning Hub.
Learning Journals
The learning journals are designed by the education team and the lecturers to help you map your study and we strongly recommend that you use it to guide your preparation and track your progress. The learning journal refers back to the competencies outlined in the competency statement. These will be available online within the Learning Hub and includes the planning and delivery schedule for each subject.
CA Diary
In addition to undertaking the professional education programme, a key element of the CA route to membership is the upkeep and completion of the CA Diary, which documents your relevant work experience. Further information on the CA Diary can be found here. The CA Diary is monitored by the Training Support team and they can be contacted through the ‘Contact Us’ page or email trainingsupport@charteredaccountants.ie
FAE Committee Report
The FAE committee (FAEC) report contains commentary on each year’s FAE exam. It serves as a formal reflection of previous exam performance and offers invaluable advice to students sitting upcoming exams. The FAEC reports can be found under the past paper section here.
Cumulative Principle
Our education programme is based on cumulative knowledge. Building on competencies examined at CAP1 and CAP2, FAE assumes your knowledge and tests your understanding and application of that knowledge in a real business-type scenario. You will be expected to think like a professional, in an integrated manner, and give the professional analysis and advice expected of a Chartered Accountant.
Detailed syllabi for FAE can be found in the relevant Competency Statements on the website. These are very beneficial to identify any knowledge gaps, especially for those who have been granted exemptions from the Master of Accounting and have not previously studied with the Institute.
Education delivery & The Learning Hub
The Learning Hub is your one-stop-shop for all Chartered Accountants Ireland student education provision, lectures, notes, webinars, discussion forums as well as important notifications and news updates. You’ll be receiving your link to the Learning Hub with details on how and where to log in. In the Induction section, you’ll learn where to access your recorded lectures and webinars, and how to navigate.
Each subject will be broken up into short learning sections. Each one usually comprises of:
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A short introduction
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Lecture notes and question & solution banks available to download
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Recorded online lectures, available to view where and when you choose
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Live webinars – please refer to your timetables
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Knowledge checks
In order to ensure a high-quality learning experience, please note that some of the content in the sections might be ‘gated’. Some material will need to be viewed in sequence e.g., Strategic Management and Leadership - session 1 must be completed before starting on SMAL session 2.
Please note that the responsibility lies with the student to complete all the pre-work required before webinars. Webinars have a particular purpose, for practical application of prior knowledge. Lecturers will not be going through the slide content and notes, so students must ensure they have completed the pre-work, in order to avoid falling behind.
Webinars are the main time-bound education delivery items, and they will be broadcast on early evenings and weekends, with duration of between 120-150 mins.
What you’ll see in The Learning Hub on day one
To be consistent with the principle of continuous and incremental improvement, we’ll be releasing syllabus material in two main batches. So, on day one you will see about half of the contents required for each Core subject. This means we will start with a really solid educational offering, and we will be able to make further improvements to release two materials if needed.
Attendance
Chartered Accountants Ireland facilitates the recording of attendance at lectures for training organisations. Webinar attendance is captured through registrations in the webinar platform. Students have to fill in their information including student number, training firm and email address linked to their student account. A report is then generated which shows if the student attended and engaged during the webinar.
Engagement with the self-study materials on the Learning Hub will also be reported on.
Students will be expected to engage with online education. This will take the form of viewing pre-recorded lectures at a time and place that suits the student, and also joining in live webinars. Students will be advised of timings of webinars as part of timetables. Students should, wherever possible, attend live webinars at the scheduled time - recordings are intended for students who are genuinely unable to attend on the day.
Integrated Case Days
Throughout the academic year, the education team will deliver seven Integrated Case Days (ICDs) webinars as part of the FAE Core module. This integrated case study approach will demonstrate how to integrate the knowledge and skills obtained from earlier studies and the work environment.
Attendance at all seven live ICDs webinars is deemed mandatory. Students who are absent from more than two of the integrated case days webinars will be considered to have not successfully completed the FAE programme and consequently become ineligible to sit the FAE examination in the 2022/23 academic cycle.
Students must attend the live ICD webinars for the attendance to be recorded. Watching the recording does not count towards attendance.
FAE timetables
The FAE timetable can be found here.
Your first lecture will include an induction talk which will give guidance on what to expect during the academic year.
We do our best to avoid any timetable changes, but they can happen due to unforeseen circumstances. If a change is required, we will send an e-mail to let you know so please ensure that your email address is correct on your student portal.
Exams & interim assessments
Exams 2023/24 – E-Assessment
All exams in 2023/24 will be carried out using the same E-Assessment platform. All agreed dates for exams, interim exams and mocks are now available to view on the Key Dates page.
There is a full suite of information explaining the platform, how you’ll sit the exams, and a technology checklist to ensure your exam goes smoothly. Please take the time to read and view all the training material available on the E-Assessment information page.
FAE online interim exams
The Advance Financial Reporting (AFR) interim assessment will take place on Saturday 2 December. It will be taken on Cirrus, the online exam platform. Students can attempt an exam on this platform at home or in work, as long as they have a laptop with a camera and microphone, adequate broadband connection and a quiet room. The exam team has created several videos and documents detailing how to access and use the exam platform. These videos can be found here and we strongly advise all students view them to familiarise themselves with the new platform.
Further information on the FAE Exams can be found here
Key dates, ethics, book distribution, data & privacy policies
Key dates
FAE key dates can be found here.
Ethics
As a Chartered Accountant student, you are bound by the code of ethics and ethics regularly comes up in exams across all three levels. We have created some online recordings to assist FAE students in understanding the importance of ethics and how to answer ethical style questions.
The Chartered Accountants Ireland Code of Ethics can be downloaded here.
Books
The required books for your course are included in the course fee. As your enrolment has now been completed, your book order will be shipped directly from our providers warehouse using DPD couriers.
Further details on book distribution can be found here.
Data & privacy policies
Please note that in some cases student interaction may be recorded as part of our online delivery service. Our data policy, privacy settings and acceptable usage policy will all be outlined in our Course Information page which will be available on the Institute website shortly.