Internal Audit Function Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Heads of Internal Audit, Internal Audit Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-A-123

Before you join: Participants should understand the purpose of internal audit, basic risk and control concepts, and the stages of a typical audit engagement.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Internal audit functions are expected to provide independent assurance, identify material control weaknesses, report clearly to boards and audit committees, and demonstrate that their work is directed at the organisation’s most significant risks. Meeting those expectations requires more than conducting individual audits. Function leaders need a sound mandate, a defensible risk assessment process, sufficient capacity, consistent quality controls, credible performance reporting and a plan for developing people and methods.

This course examines how to manage and improve an internal audit function from annual planning through reporting, quality assurance and performance monitoring. Participants learn to define audit authority and independence, construct a risk-based audit plan, match resources to the audit universe, oversee engagement quality, track management actions and report function performance to senior stakeholders. The course also addresses audit technology, data analytics, competency development, succession planning and change roadmaps for maturing the function.

Teaching combines short technical briefings with cases drawn from banking, public sector, multinational and regulated business settings. Participants analyse audit charters, risk registers, audit plans, quality review findings, dashboard measures and overdue management actions. They leave with a reusable internal audit function management pack containing planning, quality, performance and development tools, alongside a 90-day implementation plan for their own function. The course is delivered over five instructor-led days in classrooms in more than 50 cities or live online, with a certificate of completion issued to participants who complete the course.

What you will be able to do

  • Design an internal audit charter aligned with independence, authority and reporting requirements
  • Construct a risk-based audit plan using an audit universe and residual-risk assessment
  • Allocate audit resources through capacity modelling, skills analysis and sourcing decisions
  • Direct engagement delivery using consistent planning, supervision, evidence and review controls
  • Assess internal audit quality through monitoring, self-assessment and external assessment criteria
  • Build audit committee dashboards using delivery, quality, risk and management-action indicators
  • Establish competency, performance management and succession plans for internal audit teams
  • Prepare a prioritised improvement roadmap for an internal audit function

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence presenting audit plans, priorities and performance measures to audit committees
  • A practical method for balancing audit coverage against limited budget and specialist capacity
  • Stronger supervision of audit files, findings, recommendations and management action follow-up
  • Clear criteria for evaluating internal audit quality and preparing for external assessment
  • A structured development plan for progressing into internal audit leadership roles

For your organisation

  • Risk-based assurance coverage aligned with strategic priorities, control failures and emerging risks
  • More consistent audit workpapers, findings and recommendations across audit teams
  • Earlier escalation of overdue actions, scope restrictions and threats to audit independence
  • Better visibility for boards through meaningful audit performance and quality dashboards
  • A prioritised roadmap for improving audit capability, technology and specialist capacity

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define the mandate, governance arrangements and safeguards required for an independent internal audit function.

  • IIA Global Internal Audit Standards: purpose, authority, responsibility and positioning
  • Audit charter clauses defining unrestricted access, scope, reporting lines and independence
  • Board and audit committee responsibilities under the Three Lines Model
  • Safeguards against actual, perceived and potential impairment of objectivity
  • Annual confirmation process for organisational independence and unrestricted audit access
  • Escalation routes for scope limitations, management interference and unresolved risks

Participants can produce a documented, risk-based audit planning process that supports informed governance decisions.

  • Risk universe design linking entities, processes, systems, products and obligations
  • Residual-risk scoring using likelihood, impact, control maturity and change indicators
  • Heat maps calibrated through management interviews, incidents and assurance results
  • Audit universe updates following acquisitions, regulatory change, incidents and transformation
  • Risk-based plan priorities reconciled to strategic objectives and board concerns
  • Documenting risk assessment judgments, challenge records and plan approval

Participants can align internal audit capacity, budget and specialist skills with approved assurance priorities.

  • Capacity model converting audit plan hours into staffing requirements
  • Skills inventory mapped against audit universe risks and specialist demand
  • Sourcing decisions for co-source, outsource, guest auditors and subject specialists
  • Annual budget built from headcount, technology, training and external support
  • Engagement scheduling using dependency mapping, contingency allowances and milestone controls
  • Resource conflicts escalated through documented trade-offs, deferrals and scope adjustments

Participants can oversee audit engagements using consistent planning, evidence, supervision and review controls.

  • Engagement planning memoranda linking objectives, risks, controls, scope and criteria
  • Control design assessment using COSO principles and process walkthrough evidence
  • Sampling approaches: judgemental, random, systematic and attribute sampling selection
  • Workpaper standards for evidence, review notes, conclusions and retention
  • Root cause analysis using Five Whys and cause-and-effect diagrams
  • Supervision checkpoints controlling budget, scope creep, review quality and clearance

Participants can produce clear audit communications and maintain disciplined follow-up of agreed actions.

  • Finding ratings based on impact, likelihood, control failure and urgency
  • Clear issue writing: condition, criteria, cause, consequence and agreed action
  • Executive reports structured for audit committees, executives and accountable owners
  • Recommendation design specifying ownership, due dates, milestones and closure evidence
  • Management action tracking with ageing analysis, status definitions and escalation
  • Follow-up testing distinguishes implementation evidence from sustained control operation

Participants can establish a quality assurance and improvement program for the internal audit function.

  • Quality assurance and improvement program requirements under Global Internal Audit Standards
  • Ongoing monitoring through engagement reviews, file inspections and stakeholder feedback
  • Periodic self-assessments scoped against standards, methodology and performance evidence
  • External quality assessments: independence, scope, provider selection and reporting
  • Quality metrics covering conformance, timeliness, rework, satisfaction and issue validity
  • Corrective action register linking findings, owners, deadlines and verification

Participants can measure internal audit performance and present meaningful reports to senior stakeholders.

  • Balanced scorecard measures for coverage, quality, value, people and stakeholder confidence
  • Audit committee dashboards combining plan delivery, themes, ratings and overdue actions
  • Trend analysis of repeat findings, control failures and emerging risks
  • Benefits tracking distinguishes cost avoidance, loss prevention and process improvement
  • Stakeholder surveys designed with actionable questions, response protocols and confidentiality
  • Monthly function reports linking indicators, decisions required and corrective actions

Participants can identify suitable technology and data practices for improving audit coverage and monitoring.

  • Audit management system requirements for planning, workpapers, issues and reporting
  • Data analytics use cases: duplicate payments, journal entries, access conflicts
  • Continuous auditing triggers built from exceptions, thresholds and control indicators
  • Data reliability tests covering completeness, accuracy, timeliness and lineage
  • Access controls for audit evidence, restricted data and retention schedules
  • Automation selection using benefit, control risk, data availability and ownership

Participants can develop an internal audit team through competency management, coaching and succession planning.

  • Competency framework covering technical audit, business knowledge, communication and leadership
  • Individual development plans based on skills gaps, assignments and feedback
  • Performance conversations using evidence, expectations, coaching and documented commitments
  • Review coaching that improves judgment, evidence quality and report writing
  • Succession planning for audit leadership, specialist roles and critical knowledge
  • Team culture reinforcing challenge, confidentiality, respect and professional skepticism

Participants can prioritise and sequence improvements to strengthen their internal audit function.

  • Operating model review across mandate, risk coverage, resources, process and technology
  • Maturity assessment using defined criteria, evidence sources and target-state priorities
  • Change roadmap sequenced by dependencies, owners, milestones, costs and benefits
  • Stakeholder engagement plan for board, management, auditors and regulators
  • 90-day implementation plan with actions, measures, governance and review dates
  • Personal application commitments linked to current function-management priorities

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Internal audit charter review checklist
  2. Risk-based audit planning template
  3. Audit resource and capacity model
  4. Quality assurance and improvement program checklist
  5. Audit committee dashboard model
  6. 90-day audit function improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Heads of Internal Audit — responsible for directing assurance coverage, quality and stakeholder reporting
  • Internal Audit Managers — responsible for planning work, supervising teams and improving delivery consistency
  • Senior Internal Auditors — preparing for management responsibility within an internal audit function
  • Audit Committee Secretaries — supporting governance, reporting and follow-up of internal audit matters
  • Risk and Compliance Managers — coordinating assurance plans and control issues with internal audit
  • Finance Directors — overseeing internal control assurance and audit committee reporting

Skills and tools covered

Audit function governanceRisk-based audit planningQuality assurance managementAudit performance reportingAudit resource planningInternal audit development

Tools and standards

IIA Global Internal Audit Standards, COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework, IIA Three Lines Model, Quality Assurance and Improvement Program

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish methods and standards, followed by case work based on audit plans, control failures, quality reviews and audit committee reports. Group exercises apply risk assessment, capacity planning, issue rating and dashboard design techniques. Simulations focus on audit committee discussions, management challenge and resource trade-offs. Participants compare their current arrangements against defined criteria and develop an application plan for changes they can implement after the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand the purpose of internal audit, basic risk and control concepts, and the stages of a typical audit engagement. Experience as an internal auditor, audit manager, risk professional, compliance officer or finance control specialist is useful. Participants should be comfortable reading risk registers, audit reports and management action plans. Prior responsibility for an audit function is not required. The course does not require prior certification, detailed knowledge of every IIA Standard, advanced data analytics skills or experience of external audit.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

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

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand basic internal audit, risk and control concepts and have some exposure to audit, risk, compliance or finance controls work. It is suitable for experienced auditors moving into management as well as current audit managers seeking more structured function-management methods.

Bring examples of your current audit charter, audit plan, risk assessment, dashboard or quality review process if your organisation permits their use. Confidential information should be removed or anonymised before being discussed.

The course is most relevant to heads of internal audit, audit managers, senior auditors and professionals supporting audit committee reporting. Risk, compliance and finance leaders who coordinate assurance activity will also benefit.

Fundamentals courses focus on conducting individual audit engagements, including planning, testing and reporting. This course concentrates on directing the audit function: mandate, annual planning, resources, quality, performance, people and improvement priorities.

Participants can use the templates to review their audit charter, refresh the risk-based plan, assess quality arrangements and improve reporting to senior stakeholders. The final module converts identified priorities into a 90-day action plan.

The five days provide about 32.5 contact hours, covering ten connected modules from governance and planning through quality, performance and function improvement. Each day combines technical instruction with case analysis, group work, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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