Membership > Membership News

First new members admitted via the RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) Route

Until December 2005, the Institute admitted members via the interim process of grandfathering. IPFA developed and registered public finance qualifications (linked to the 4 tiers of membership) on the National Qualifications Framework, and the grandfathering process was phased out. Persons without appropriate qualifications can now access tiered membership by registering for one of these qualifications. For more details on these qualification are available under Qualifications Framework.

Persons who already hold finance qualifications can access IPFA membership via the RPL route to membership. This route to membership was opened at the beginning of 2007, and it gives us great pleasure to announce that IPFA has admitted the first new tiered members via the RPL route to membership.

These applicants have been through a rigorous process of having the outcomes of their qualifications assessed against the IPFA framework, and they had to prove their public sector knowledge and work experience by completing a comprehensive Membership Portfolio. The Institute would like to commend these new members for the high standard of the portfolios that were submitted.

These new members all come from the Office of the Presidency. IPFA would like to thank one our longstanding members, Nelani Naik, for her valuable contributions in promoting the Institute to these individuals. Nelani invited them to attend the IPFA Conference last year and then arranged for IPFA to do a presentation to all the finance staff at the Office of the Presidency, which culminated in them applying for membership and registering on the RPL route to membership.

On behalf of all the members of IPFA, we congratulate these new tiered members on their achievement and welcome them to their new professional home. They will be presented with their membership certificates at the next Kitso on 5 November 2007.

How you can promote IPFA

If you are a member of IPFA, you might have wondered from time to time what you could do to promote the Institute and assist in increasing awareness of the organisation of which you are a member. After all, any progress the Institute makes will ultimately benefit you as a member.

There are a number of ways you can promote the Institute, but probably the way that requires the least effort from you but which will have a great impact for yourself and the Institute is to use your designation. Add your IPFA designation to your email signature and to all other correspondence that you send out. Every person that you communicate with will then become aware of your status and of the Institute. In the recent membership survey we conducted, most respondents indicated that they did not use their designations, yet this is a very effective way of marketing the member and the Institute.

The Institute challenges you to start using your designation in all your correspondence that you send out. Try it for 6 months and please give us any feedback on the impact you feel it has had.

The IPFA designations are as follows:

Tier	Designation
1	Registered Public Sector Financial Officer (RPSFO)
2	Registered Public Sector General Accountant (RPSGA)
3	Registered Public Sector Accounting Technician (RPSAT)
4	Registered Public Sector Accounts Administrator (RPSAA)
None	Affiliate member
None	Student member