Corporate Governance for Audit Committee Chairs Training Course

Course overview

Audit committee chairs must turn board oversight into disciplined challenge, not retrospective review. They are expected to interrogate financial reporting judgements, internal-control failures, external audit quality, whistleblowing concerns, cyber risk and management assurances while preserving an effective working relationship with the CFO, chief audit executive and external auditor. This course addresses the practical difficulty of setting an evidence-based committee agenda, asking the questions that expose material issues, and recording decisions that stand up to regulator, investor and stakeholder scrutiny.

Participants examine the chair's governance responsibilities across financial reporting, risk, internal audit, external audit, compliance and ethics. They learn to construct an annual committee work plan; set clear information requirements; assess audit plans, materiality and independence; evaluate control-deficiency remediation; lead private auditor sessions; and escalate concerns to the board. The course also addresses committee composition, terms of reference, meeting dynamics, minutes, management representations, assurance mapping and reporting to shareholders.

Delivery combines instructor-led governance briefings with board-paper analysis, simulated audit committee meetings and chair-led challenge exercises. Participants work with realistic audit findings, accounting-judgement papers, risk dashboards and external-auditor reports, applying recognised frameworks including the UK Corporate Governance Code, COSO Internal Control framework and IIA Global Internal Audit Standards. Each participant leaves with a tailored Audit Committee Chair Action Pack containing an annual agenda, information-request checklist, question bank, assurance map and 90-day improvement plan.

The course is designed for current and newly appointed audit committee chairs, board members preparing for the role, and senior governance professionals who directly support the committee.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct a risk-based annual audit committee agenda aligned to the reporting calendar, principal risks and assurance cycle
• Evaluate financial reporting papers using materiality, key audit matter and management-judgement challenge criteria
• Assess external auditor independence, quality indicators, audit scope and tendering decisions
• Interrogate internal audit plans using risk coverage, resource adequacy and recommendation-aging analysis
• Map assurance across management, risk, compliance, internal audit and external audit using a three-lines model
• Lead confidential auditor and internal-audit sessions using structured chair challenge questions
• Review control deficiencies and remediation plans through COSO control-component and root-cause analysis
• Produce an Audit Committee Chair Action Pack with information requirements, escalation triggers and a 90-day plan

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Audit Committee Chairs — who must lead rigorous oversight of reporting, controls, assurance and audit relationships
• Non-Executive Directors — who are preparing to chair or contribute more effectively to an audit committee
• Board Chairs — who appoint, evaluate and support audit committee leadership
• Chief Audit Executives — who need to present assurance evidence and engage productively with the committee chair
• Chief Financial Officers — who must provide decision-useful reporting and management assurances to the committee
• Company Secretaries and Governance Directors — who design committee processes, papers, minutes and follow-up

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to board, audit committee, finance, risk, internal audit or corporate governance work. The course assumes familiarity with basic financial statements, annual reporting cycles, enterprise risk concepts and the respective roles of management, internal audit and external audit. Experience reading board papers, audit reports or risk registers is helpful. Participants should be able to discuss their organisation's governance arrangements without disclosing confidential information. No accounting qualification, legal qualification, prior committee-chair experience or specialist governance software is required; core accounting concepts are explained in the context of chairing decisions.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led briefings to establish governance requirements, followed by intensive application to realistic committee materials. Participants analyse an annual-report extract, an external-audit planning report, an internal-audit dashboard, a control-failure investigation and a whistleblowing escalation. In rotating chair roles, they conduct simulated meetings, frame follow-up actions and test the quality of draft minutes. Facilitated peer review compares approaches across sectors. The final session converts learning into a tailored annual agenda, chair question bank and 90-day action plan for workplace use.

Course outline

Day 1: The audit committee chair's governance mandate

• Audit committee authority, fiduciary duties and delegated board responsibilities
• Terms of reference design and annual effectiveness review criteria
• Committee composition, financial expertise and independence assessment
• Annual agenda construction around reporting, risk and assurance milestones
• Information rights and minimum board-paper standards
• The three-lines model and management accountability boundaries
• Escalation thresholds, reserved matters and board reporting routes

Workshop: Participants diagnose a weak audit committee terms of reference and produce a revised annual agenda with defined escalation points.

Day 2: Financial reporting and external audit oversight

• Chair challenge of critical accounting estimates and management judgements
• Materiality, adjusted and unadjusted misstatements and qualitative risk factors
• Key audit matters and their relationship to committee oversight
• External audit planning reports, scope limitations and audit-response evaluation
• Auditor independence threats, non-audit services and safeguard testing
• Audit quality indicators and external auditor performance assessment
• Auditor appointment, tendering, rotation and private-session protocols

Workshop: Using a simulated year-end reporting pack, participants prepare chair questions and lead a challenge session on a disputed revenue-recognition judgement.

Day 3: Internal control, risk and assurance

• COSO internal control components and control-environment indicators
• Control deficiency classification, severity assessment and remediation governance
• Root-cause analysis using five whys and causal-factor mapping
• Risk appetite statements, principal risks and emerging-risk triggers
• Assurance mapping across management, compliance, internal audit and external audit
• Internal audit plan approval, risk coverage and resource sufficiency testing
• Recommendation aging, overdue actions and repeat-finding analysis

Workshop: Participants build an assurance map and remediation-tracking dashboard for a case involving recurring cyber access-control failures.

Day 4: Leading effective committee challenge

• Chair questioning techniques for evidence, assumptions and alternative explanations
• Managing meeting dynamics with executives, auditors and non-executive members
• Private sessions with external auditors and chief audit executives
• Whistleblowing, fraud indicators and protected-disclosure oversight
• Regulatory correspondence, investigations and legal-privilege boundaries
• Committee minutes that capture challenge, judgement and action ownership
• Committee self-assessment and action tracking after each meeting

Workshop: In a role-play committee meeting, participants chair an escalation involving a whistleblowing allegation and produce action-focused minute extracts.

Day 5: Chair action planning and stakeholder reporting

• Audit committee reporting to the board and shareholder disclosure considerations
• Communicating significant judgements without duplicating management reporting
• Committee effectiveness metrics and annual performance-review evidence
• Managing the CFO, chief audit executive and external auditor relationship cadence
• Crisis meeting protocols for restatements, fraud and major control breakdowns
• Ninety-day governance improvement planning and stakeholder engagement
• Personal chair development priorities and succession-readiness planning

Workshop: Participants complete and peer-review their Audit Committee Chair Action Pack, including an annual plan, question bank, assurance map and 90-day implementation roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

Diligent Boards, UK Corporate Governance Code, COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework, IIA Global Internal Audit Standards

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions