For someone who’s never done any formal continuing professional development (CPD), Alan Nelson has kicked plenty of professional development goals.

Starting his career as an accountant, Nelson switched to publishing accountancy textbooks, rising quickly to become chief executive of Thomson Learning. London-based Nelson then launched e-learning business, accountingcpd, in 2010.

Professional bodies across the globe, including CA ANZ, were soon partnering with Nelson’s company to get their hands on the online courses it offered.

“We soon had a flywheel in motion,” Nelson explains. “The more professional bodies that partnered with us, the more money we were able to invest in creating quality courses and the less we needed to charge for them. Our courses are now available in almost every country in the world and we’ve twice won the E-Learning Company of the Year award.”

The accountingcpd difference

Nelson attributes his company’s success to the fact its CPD offering has been exclusively digital from the get-go.

“Many CPD providers are used to putting on real-world talks and training sessions and are good at doing that. But their approach to online resources has typically been to video a tax briefing talk then upload that to their website,” he says.

“That’s not particularly engaging. The person watching it online can’t chat to the speaker. They can’t discuss what the speaker has said with the person sitting next to them. As a specialist e-learning company, accountingcpd has devoted vast amounts of time, money and effort to ensure our online resources are as immersive, social and effective as possible.”

“As a specialist e-learning company, accountingcpd has devoted vast amounts of time, money and effort to ensure our online resources are as immersive, social and effective as possible.”

Thriving in a post-automation world

Nelson has a burning ambition to ensure accountants continue to thrive in a fast-moving world.

“It looks like much of the transactional work accountants do will be automated and that those who wish to remain in the profession will need to progressively transition into offering value-added services,” he says.

“My team and I take a lot of pride in having created more than 1000 hours of CPD: CPD that will allow accountants to develop both the soft and hard skills they need to future-proof their career or business.”

Picture: Alan Nelson, founder of accountingcpd.net. When you complete your CPD, your certificates are kept on your personal CPD dashboard.

Find out more

There’s still time to find high-quality and relevant CPD ahead of your CPD deadline on 30 June. Join more than 80,000 accountants in 179 countries who use accountingcpd. Discover CPD that keeps you up to date, is enjoyable and will make a real difference to your career. What’s more, as a CA ANZ member, you’ll save 10% by using code CAANZ101. To browse accountingcpd’s award-winning online CPD, visit accountingcpd.net