CA Sri Lanka launches revamped syllabus for 2015

Thursday, 27 March 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The syllabus, based on ‘Knowledge, Skills and Personal,’ aims to churn out new generation of chartered accountants who will steer businesses and create value to compete and succeed in global market

By David Ebert Following an extensive consultation process involving feedback from industry stakeholders and its own membership, CASL launched its revamped syllabus for 2015 on Tuesday at the Cinnamon Grand. The new syllabus will look at creating chartered accountants by 2020 that will spearhead change and help Sri Lankan businesses to take the leap forward and transform themselves into dynamic and globally competitive entities. With a specific focus on CASL’s three pillars of ‘Knowledge, Skills and Personal,’ the syllabus will be offered at three levels – Executive, Business and Corporate. Accordingly, students who complete the Executive level will be recognised as ‘Certified Business Accountants’ and students who sit for the Business level will be ‘Certified Senior Business Accountants,’ while students completing the final Corporate level will be accredited as ‘Chartered Accountants’. The Executive level promises to provide students with the fundamentals of accounting and allow them to harness the specific skills and professional values required to mould them into successful Business Accountants. The Business level on the other hand will look at building their technical abilities with a focus on enhancing interpersonal and communication skills, as well as problem resolution skills as required by a competent Senior Business Accountant. The Corporate level, which is considered the most important level, will aim to cap it all off by producing chartered accountants who will be fully-geared with the required knowledge, skills and personality to become a highly-successful business leader. Change that creates champions This, as CA Sri Lanka’s Education and Curriculum Development Task Force Chairman Manil Jayesinghe explained, would produce accountants who will be able to partner businesses in achieving their goals using prudent financial leadership. “Apart from focusing on producing fully-fledged chartered accountants for 2020 and beyond, the new curriculum has also been structured in a way that even students who decide not to go to the next level will have the adequate competency to perform at a particular level without completing the entire program,” added Jayesinghe. CASL revises its syllabus every five years or as regularly as required, to be in line with local and international requirements and the new 2015 syllabus promises to be more flexible than before, with knowledge sharing, coaching and guidance, setting boundaries and helping students reach greater heights than before, in keeping with its theme this year – ‘Change that creates champions’.

Revolutionising professional accountancy education Calling the new syllabus a new milestone for the Institute, CASL President Arjuna Herath said that it represents a visionary leap aimed at revolutionising professional accountancy education in the country by transforming the teaching methods used by its partner teaching colleges to outcome-based learning methods. This, he said, will ensure that the student’s knowledge is transformed into effective application and skills, together with an emphasis on acquiring the right life skills critical for a professional to make an impact. “We will partner the teaching colleges to transform them to be modern learning centres and the institute will use technology to provide supplementary learning opportunities in the form of webinars, and eLearning tools and material. The life skills program initiated will be of international standards resulting in students also having the opportunity to get certification from reputed world bodies. I am confident the new syllabus will be exciting and very promising for the students, as well as for the employers wanting chartered accountants par excellence. “This is the syllabus that will produce our 2020 chartered accountants who will partner business through financial leadership. It is a syllabus that will produce highly skilled and competent chartered accountants who are multi-faceted professionals that have the ability to create value, enable value, preserve value and report value,” he added. Ready to beat the competition Speaking at the launch, Chief Guest, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Suresh Shah said: “Peter Drucker once said that ‘when a subject becomes obsolete, we make it a required course’. Fortunately, CA Sri Lanka has thought otherwise.” He commended CA Sri Lanka’s foresight in bringing about positive self change at a time when the country needs professionals who can take on the challenge of competing with the global market and in an increasingly competitive local marketplace. This especially comes at a time when businesses themselves have begun embracing change in order to succeed. “Sri Lankan businesses will face ever-increasing competition in the years ahead. We will be compelled to face great competition at home and we will have no choice but to compete in markets overseas. Increasingly we will compete with regional and global businesses. They will come to the party with cutting-edge technology, a range of financial instruments, the latest in systems and processes, and the very best in human resources. We must be ready, to not just meet the competition but to beat them. “It is not enough that our products and services are good; they must be superior. It is not enough that our finances are adequate; they must be smart. It is not enough that our systems and processes make us efficient; they must give us the competitive advantage. It is not enough that Sri Lankan businesses change; they must transform.” He pointed out that the country’s education system and institutions such as CA Sri Lanka will play a crucial role in this transformation, where futures Human Resource demands will be for professionals with knowledge, skills and attitude. “Knowledge to design superior products and services, skills to convert the prototypes into commercially marketable offerings; skills also to innovate the business models that drive the competitive advantage, and personal attributes to compete in the marketplace with determination and aggression passion and integrity. This then is the profile that CA Sri Lanka is trying to meet with its new curriculum.” At the event, copies of the new curriculum were presented by CA Sri Lanka’s Education and Curriculum Development Task Force Chairman Manil Jayesinghe and CA Sri Lanka CEO/Secretary Aruna Alwis, to Chief Guest CCC Chairman Suresh Shah and CA Sri Lanka President Arjuna Herath. Pix by Upul Abayasekara