For many CIMA students, the Practical Experience Requirement (PER) is the part of the qualification that feels the most unclear.
You may be progressing well with your exams, but when it comes to recording your work experience, it’s not always obvious what CIMA expects, what counts as relevant experience, or how detailed your entries need to be.
The good news is that the PER is not designed to catch students out.
It is CIMA’s way of confirming that you have developed the practical skills needed to qualify as a CGMA.
Once you understand what CIMA is looking for, the process is usually much more straightforward than it first appears.
What is CIMA PER?
The PER is your record of practical experience, completed inside your MyCIMA account.
To qualify for membership, CIMA needs to see that you have developed competencies across three areas:
- Technical skills
- People skills
- Leadership skills
Your experience does not have to come from one job, and it does not need to be in a perfect finance role.
Many students build their PER across different positions over time.
What matters is that the experience is you gain is relevant, and can be confirmed by someone who supervised your work.
How to approach your PER
When completing your PER, think of each entry as a record of a period of work where you developed specific skills.
You should create a separate record for each role, or for each stage of your career where your responsibilities changed.
For every record, you will need to enter the details of your role, select the competencies you demonstrated, and provide short examples showing how you applied those skills in practice.
This is where many students run into problems.
The PER is not about writing long descriptions, it is about giving clear, specific evidence.
For example, instead of saying you managed a team, explain what you actually did, what your responsibility was, and what the outcome was.
Simple, factual examples make it much easier for your approver to sign off your record and for CIMA to review it if needed.
Choosing competencies carefully
One of the most common mistakes in PER submissions is selecting too many competencies.
It can be tempting to tick everything, but each competency you choose must be supported by real experience.
If the examples do not match the competencies selected, your approver may reject the entry, or CIMA may request changes later.
It is usually better to select fewer competencies and support them properly than to select too many without clear evidence.
Self-assessment and approval
When completing your PER, you will also need to rate your level as Developing, Proficient, or Advanced.
This is not a test, but it should reflect your actual experience.
Your approver will review your record, and CIMA may audit it, so accuracy is important.
Each PER entry must be approved by a supervisor, manager, or someone senior who understands your work.
They are confirming that the experience you recorded is accurate and that you performed the tasks described.
Keeping your entries clear and realistic makes the approval process much smoother.
Why students get stuck with PER
In most cases, delays happen for simple reasons:
- Examples are too vague
- Too many competencies are selected
- The approver is unsure what they are signing off
- Records are incomplete
Taking a bit of time to write clear, specific entries from the start can save a lot of time later. The PER is an important part of becoming a CGMA, but it doesn't need to be complicated. If your experience is genuine, your examples are clear, and your approver can confirm your work, you are already on the right track.
