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APSCA
Newsletter – Februrary 2022
Greetings, and Happy New Year. We hope you were able
to enjoy some refreshing downtime during the holidays with those
who mean the most to you.
Just as exciting as the metaphorical new beginning that a new year
brings is that we are also celebrating the Year of the Tiger!
As APSCA kicks off our 7th year of working with our
members and stakeholders around the globe. All indicators point to
a robust business environment in which WE all can thrive. The
pandemic shows signs of coming under better control, with more
people expressing enthusiasm about returning to safe workplaces.
Companies are hiring in untold numbers during the “Great
Reshuffle.” Social compliance standards will remain top of mind for
the foreseeable future as talent remains scarce and companies pull
out every stop to ensure that they can fuel their competitive
growth engines with the all-important “people first” agenda.
This issue covers what’s on tap for 2022: new education, key dates,
events, a recap of Ethics Investigations from 2021, Practice Exams
and more. Read
on to learn more.
We welcome
your feedback on how we can continually improve the value we
deliver. If there is a new or better way we may be of service, a
new resource you would like to see, or a question or concern,
contact us any time.
Here’s to 2022. May the highly anticipated Year of The Tiger bring
you health, wealth and happiness.
Note:
If your firm is not yet an APSCA Member Firm, we would welcome the
opportunity to help you explore the benefits of membership. To
learn more (and schedule a brief discussion) contact us at membership@theapsca.org
Further
highlights are provided below.
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Are you preparing to sit your Part I or Part II exam
and looking for some extra resources?
Because practice makes us feel more at ease and
empowered to demonstrate our capabilities, we have added to the
tools to assist you in putting your best foot forward during the
certification exam journey. Part I & Part II Practice
Exams are available and can be used to practice the right
click translate feature. We encourage you to access this new tool
on the APSCA website to familiarize yourself with the style of the
exams, along with the type of questions and exercises you’ll
encounter.
Please click here to take a look at the Practice Exam.
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In 2021 the Ethics Team completed their
investigations of the 2020 Exam Misconduct which involved more
than 80 Auditors. In addition, the Disciplinary Board for Member
Auditors (DBMA) were presented cases throughout the year
resulting in 7 Membership revocations and 11 Membership
suspensions. In addition, the team opened another 48 cases, with
some currently under investigation.
2022 Annual Ethics Report
Every year, Member Firms are required to submit to
APSCA an annual report relating to their ethics and integrity
programs. To better understand Members’ programs, we ask
questions relating to Member Firms’ complaint-handling
activities and integrity management as required by sections 5.2.4
and 2.3 of the APSCA Code and Standards of Professional Conduct.
This assists APSCA’s Ethics Team in identifying areas of
opportunity for both our team and our Members.
Systemic Issue Alerts for Member Firms
In addition to dealing with violations of the APSCA Code and
Standards of Professional Conduct, this year the
Ethics Team will be increasing efforts to address
systemic issues that we identify across the industry. One way we
will be doing this is to issue Systemic
Issue Alerts to Member Firms. Systemic Issue Alerts will
serve as both guidance and as an educational tool for Member
Firms to identify issues and enhance the training for their
Member Auditors in adhering to the
APSCA Code and Standards of Professional Conduct.
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In the spirit of continuous improvement, APSCA has
been actively working to optimize our business processes and
related documentation.
Thus far in 2022, APSCA has released updated
consolidated instructions on how to book exams, and separated our
exam request process (documents) to better support the expanded
language offerings. Please reference our resource library here.
As part of our work supporting the APSCA Governance
pillar, we are working through a comprehensive review of all of our
documents and process’ in 2022.
Exam Eligibility
For all CSCA Exams (Parts I – III) Auditors must
consult with their Member Firm to confirm eligibility to sit each
exam and obtain information on the 2022 exam fees.
Please follow the guidance in the Auditor Handbook and work with
your Member Firm or APSCA prior to scheduling/sitting any exam.
Should you
have any questions or require clarification on the exam eligibility
process, contact us at Director@theapsca.org
CSCA Exams and Languages:
Parts I & II are available in
10 languages (English, Spanish, Simplified & Traditional
Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Bangla, Thai, and Vietnamese).
With the assistance of technology, APSCA has expanded these exams
to cover another 92 languages. See below to learn more about this
feature!
Part III is available in English, Spanish,
Mandarin and Cantonese.
We are in the final stages of testing to provide Part III in all
languages with the support of translators.
Please see the Resource
Library on our website for more
information.
APSCA has partnered with an organization which offers 240 different
languages. They have the experience, team and technology to
convert the complexities of our language requirements into a
powerful asset for APSCA and our Members. We are excited to
work together with them to improve the process for our Member
Auditors sitting the Part III exam. For more information about our
translation partner, please click here.
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During the 2021 Annual General Meeting, APSCA
presented updates on Continuous Professional Development (CPD). We
have received a number of questions and would like to take this
opportunity to clarify some of the initial information.
Mandatory and non-mandatory CPD
2021 CPD WAS NOT mandatory and will not affect
Auditor level certification for 2022.
2022 CPD
IS mandatory and may impact Auditor Membership (level and/or
status) for 2023. (See the CPD Policy below for more information).
Updated CPD Policy
APSCA updated the CPD policy
in December to simplify the process and clarify terminology.
Examples of revised terminology are:
1) better distinguishing mandatory vs. elective topics; and
2) recognized courses vs. independent submissions.
If you are an Auditor, we encourage you to read and become familiar
with the updated
policy.
Reporting your CPD
We have provided detailed
instructions for submitting CPD in Auditor’s
APSCA online account (My Account).
Note: APSCA
has been working through an issue with the workflow approval
of CPD requests in our online system with our IT provider. We are
happy to report that the system issue has been resolved and we are
working thru the back log, anticipating to have all 2021 requests
processed by the end of February. We thank you for your
patience.
For more information on the CPD changes and enhancements, visit the
CPD
section of our website.
Be sure to browse the updated list of recognized trainings.
Participation in recognized training can be easily reported by
Auditors within the APSCA Online system.
Are You a Training Provider?
We welcome Member Firms, Collaborative Programs
Training providers, partners, and affiliates to participate in
this initiative by submitting an expression
of interest form to have their social
compliance auditing-related learning recognized as part of APSCA’s
CPD program.
Recognized courses are assigned a specific quantity of CPD hours
that Member Auditors can note on their APSCA profile as meeting the
annual requirement. Courseware can range from online training to
webinars, conferences, workshops and more. You can submit your
learning materials for consideration by completing our expression of interest form.
This quarter, we will issue further guidance on CPD to help Member
Auditors and Member Firms meet this requirement effectively in
2022.
For questions, please contact cpd@theapsca.org.
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APSCA has recently launched Digital Membership
Cards. The new digital credential improves
upon the previously issued CSCA cards by creating a digital
identification for Member Auditors of all levels and statuses.
Updated every 24 hours, the digital solution will make it easier
for facilities to verify Auditors and for Member Auditors to
monitor their level and status.
The Digital Membership Card offers a clear visual indicator of
an auditor’s level and includes a QR code linking to our portal to
obtain additional information and, if needed, further verification
of an APSCA Member Auditor’s status and level.
APSCA is requesting our Member Auditors’ assistance in testing the
digital format, and we further ask that all APSCA Member Auditors
check your beta test card within your Auditor’s APSCA online account.
We encourage all stakeholders and facility management to request
the Digital Membership Card when a Member Auditor(s) arrives
on-site to conduct a Social Compliance Audit. This tool should be
used to verify the Auditor’s identity, Membership Status and Level
by using the QR code and confirming their details in our
verification portal.
If at any point you are concerned over the authenticity of the
Auditor, please contact the Member Firm directly, or contact APSCA for assistance.
Learn more about the Digital
Membership Card today. We welcome your questions
and feedback.
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To better serve our Membership and interested
parties, we established a Resource Library on APSCA’s
website. The library provides a comprehensive directory of member
documents, key dates, exam guides, webinars for exam
preparation and more!
The APSCA resource library layout will be changing
in the coming months.
Watch this
newsletter and our website for more details and changes.
Policies
APSCA’s latest policies and Guidance Documents are available.
Visit our website to access the
resources.
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Our
monthly newsletter now reaches over 4,000 subscribers each
month! We encourage our Member Firms to
have their auditors subscribe to APSCA’s newsletter to stay up
to date with APSCA Happenings by clicking here.
Further, if you have a friend or colleague that may be interested
in APSCA, please share this newsletter with them via the link below.
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