ICMA (Australia) Graduation a success

Monday, 20 May 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The annual graduation ceremony of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) Australia was held at the BMICH recently, amongst a group of distinguished guests and invitees. Gracing the occasion on this year’s graduation were; Chief Guest Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Guest of Honour ICMA Australia Education Committee Chair Professor Janek Ratnatunga and ICMA Sri Lanka Branch President Murali Prakash.

A large number of Certified Management Accountants (CMAs), Associate Management Accountants (AMAs) and Graduate Management Accountants (GMAs) graduated at the ceremony, making it one of the highest attended graduation ceremonies. The graduates included leading entrepreneurs, CEO’s, managing directors, directors, general managers, consultants and senior executives from the public and private sector organisations and multinationals. Most candidates joined the ICMA Graduate Conversion Program with their professional, bachelors or masters level qualifications in banking, marketing, engineering, law and human resources. The others have directly joined ICMA Qualifying Workshop with their professional accountancy qualifications.

Cabraal highlighted the fact that the country’s economy is now on a high growth mode targeting a US$ 100 billion economy with US$ 4,000 per capita income. “The country requires knowledgeable, competent and innovative professionals with the skills required for the 21st century knowledge economy to spearhead the vision of being the miracle of Asia.” He further emphasised the importance for professionals to keep abreast of the changes happening globally and continuously acquire new knowledge.

“If not they will be out of touch and outdated,” he continued. ICMA (Australia) is one qualification which helps professionals and graduates to move forward in this direction expanding their knowledge horizons by acquiring a high level of financial literacy and improving lateral thinking. Cabraal congratulated the graduates on their achievement and thanked ICMA (Australia) for offering the program in Sri Lanka.

Prof. Ratnatunga mentioned about ‘connecting the dots’. He continued, “This can only be done backwards, and gave an example of how Apple’s Steve Jobs realised that he went years to college, before was influenced of the design he brought to Apple.” Professor Ratnatunga connected his own dots, and said that upon entering KPMG as an ‘article clerk’ to do chartered a major dot was Cabraal, the Governor of the Central Bank. Cabraal had won all the prizes, and Prof. Ratnatunga wanted to beat him. “I never could, but the discipline, that the chase gave me, served me well for my very successful academic career later.”

He emphasised that the CMA program will no doubt be an important dot in and professional careers of all the graduates. Kapila Dodamgoda announced the gold medallists with excellent performance. ICMA Australia is the fastest growing post graduate level accounting qualification in Australia with an increasing membership in Australia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Lebanon, UAE and Sri Lanka. Certified Management Accountant (Australia) is an internationally acclaimed professional qualification that offers competitive advantage to non financial professionals in an ever-changing business environment today.