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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Friday, 29 April 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Cheranka Mendis
Global benchmark of accounting excellence, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) yesterday launched its entry level suite of awards titled ‘Foundation in Accountancy’ or FIA, which will be examined from December 2011.
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| A section of the audience at the FIA launch |
The qualification, created to cater to the increasing demand for professionally qualified accountants in the ever-expanding field of business, consists of giving out awards by way of certificates, diplomas and revised Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) qualifications. Such awards focus on the core skills of financial accounting as well as management accounting and a wider role of accounting in business at a higher level.
President of ACCA Nisreen Rehmanjee stated that the new qualification was designed keeping in mind both the students and the employers.
“With a flexible range of entry level offered the students can get qualifications in their own time. For employers the qualifications are a skill assessment and by that you can target recruitment in specific occupational skills,” Rehmanjee said.
She stated that with certifications being awarded at each level, the students would be able to monitor their progress and help employers to recruit and train to meet their own business needs. The qualification enables students to collect their qualification as they learn hence earn as they learn.
The FIA is broken down to four categories – introductory certificate in financial and management accounting, intermediate certificate in financial and management accounting, diploma in accounting and business as well as the Certified Accounting Technician qualification (CAT).
This includes specialist papers and work experience in audit, tax and financial management and provides grounding in financial and management accounting with professionalism and ethical behaviour. The programme has been constructed after global consultation.
Country Manager for ACCA Sri Lanka and Maldives Aruni Rajakariya stated that the key features offered through FIA were its practicality and flexibility as the students could pick the point at which they want to go into system, the open access system built in safeguards with advisory guidelines in the form of English and math self check, multiple entry and exit points and recognition from international bodies as the qualification received is certified in UK and core accounting capabilities within the study framework and self check modules which enables students to see where they stand and act as an encouraging source to further their carriers.
From an organisational point of view, FIA would benefit the company by reaching and developing new talent pools, bringing in advance professionalism and ethics, help control costs as companies can now target more effectively the cost of recruitment, salary and training and develop essential finance skills across the whole organisation.
Pix by Daminda Harsha Perera
