Does the PER supervisor need to speak English?

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with my workplace supervisor.

I am originally from a country which doesn’t have English as an official language. Many people speak English but not all.

I have nearly 20 years of accounting experience gained in that country. At my previous jobs my work experience was signed off as well as some of the performance objectives.

In 2016 I changed my job – I started working in a small audit practice with only one manager – the owner of the practice. When I started working there I explained to that manager that I am in the middle of my ACCA studies and I would like her to become my workplace mentor. She agreed.

Then due to personal circumstances I had to take a break in my studies and I didn’t work on my PER objectives for a few years. When I continued my studies I concentrated on passing my exams because one of them was about to expire due to the 7-years rule.

In March I sat my last exam and I don’t know whether I have passed yet but I hope so. So while waiting for the results I decided to work on my PER.

And then came my big surprise! My manager said that she would not sign off my experience because she didn’t speak English. I was going to give her a translation of my statements for her to read, of course. But she said that she was afraid of a PER audit and that if they called to speak to her she won’t be able to answer. She said she was under a lot of stress already and didn’t want any trouble!

I am gutted! I will find a new job and get my performance objectives done eventually. But there seem to be some changes in the PER requirements and they want the 36 months of experience to be gained in the last 5 years (if i understood it correctly?). For the last 5 years I have worked for this employer only. So now I will need to wait for 3 more years before I could apply for membership.

What can I do to persuade her to at least sign off my time? Is there a requirement that the workplace mentor has to speak English? I haven’t seen such requirement so it should be fine, right?

Has anyone had a PER audit? Do they call the mentors and try to speak to them? What involvement does the mentor have during the audit?