The month of May is observed as International Internal Audit Awareness Month. The celebration of this month has been a tradition of the Department of Auditing in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences for the past 15 years.

International Audit Awareness Month seeks to raise awareness of the role that internal auditors play in organisations and their value for these organisations.

To raise awareness of the auditing profession, the Department of Auditing hosted an intensive three-day workshop for 64 honours students on 10, 11 and 13 May. The Department currently has almost 700 students registered for internal auditing at both undergraduate and honours level.

During the workshop, the students prepared presentations on relevant internal audit topics, which were assessed by a panel of academics, senior internal audit practitioners, members of the professional body and IIA representatives, who provided feedback to the students. The workshop sought to develop students’ presentation skills – both face to face and online. On day one, they received feedback from the panel on their PowerPoint presentation skills, on day two, their online presentation skills were assessed, and on day three, their overall presentation skills were evaluated.  

Department of Internal Auditing's 2022 Meet and Greet Event

The feedback from the students regarding the workshop and their engagements with industry professionals was positive. Some of the comments were:

• The way all the panel members gave their feedback – it was very constructive.
• I enjoyed the professional feel of it and all the opportunities for learning and development.
• I enjoyed the constructive criticism from the panel. It made a huge difference.

Advancing the EMS mission of developing employable internal audit graduates with relevant skills and knowledge who are also future-fit is a key goal for the Department of Auditing.

“It is crucial that we develop graduates who are critical thinkers, effective communicators and who are ethical – an imperative trait in the internal auditing profession,” says Prof Kato Plant, Head of the Department of Auditing.

In addition to the Department’s developmental initiatives for students, an annual “meet and greet” event is hosted. Here honours students are provided an opportunity to meet with internal audit practitioners, who are potentially their future employers.

The 2022 event was held in April, where students engaged with at least ten potential employers – mostly medium to large-sized audit firms who have internal audit functions and provide outsourced internal audit services. This annual event not only exposes students to industry, but provides them with direct access to their future employers.