The students who represented the Department of Auditing were Martin Lemmer, Kamogelo Diphoko, Carina Venter and James Cronje. They were accompanied by Mrs Reilly, a senior lecturer in the Department.

The event started with an opportunity to network and meet educators, practitioners and students from all over the world. This gave an opportunity to observe the students’ communication and networking skills. After the ice breaker, students were introduced to their team members. A total of ten teams consisted of eight members each from different universities. A total of 46 universities, including the six Centres of Internal Audit Excellence, attended the conference.

The opening speeches included financially-orientated as well as competitive presentations from both KPMG and Deloitte. JC Penny discussed new proposals, for example enabling customers in their clothing stores to pay and check out without making use of tellers. From an internal auditing perspective, changes like these in industry will present very new and unique risks within the sales process.

A comprehensive case study was handed out to the different teams with the objective of providing experience with audit procedures and techniques, as well as different questions regarding the stages of risk analysis. Due to first semester modules already having given students a comprehensive theoretical foundation as well as presentation skills, all students of the University of Pretoria were more than capable to perform this audit. Teams had to report back on the preliminary review, the audit programme that was used, top risk areas, potential areas of concerns and related audit findings. Teams reported back to the audience and the donors of the event on the approach and how they will deal with all the issues. Their performances were judged by practitioners and people from retail. The students from the University of Pretoria performed excellent, proving that they are completely proficient in the different areas with specific reverence to professionalism, integrity and efficiency in best practices. The Department of Auditing from the University of Pretoria was congratulated by all attendees on the standard of the students. Two students from UP, Kamogelo Diphoko and James Cronje, were part of the three winning teams.

Other sessions included, amongst others, talks on what your brand says about you, business communication, a guide to entering the workforce, hands-on with IDEA and enhancing the IAEP programmes.

This event was an enormous opportunity for students to build their self-esteem and prepare for entering into the workforce. However, it was not only work and no play. The students spent a few relaxing days in Orlando and Miami after the conference, enjoying the main tourist attractions.

The Department of Auditing would like to thank colleagues, Advisory Board members and practitioners who support the IAEP programme. The BCom (Internal Auditing) degree of the University of Pretoria is recognised as one of the best internationally.