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The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has launched Accounting Technician Certificate Course in India on Dec 10, 2008. Similarly ICWAI has launched its own course.The publicity in the press about the Accounting Technician Course by ICAI.

Business Standard Dec 9, 2008

The institute of chartered accountants of India (ICAI), to fulfill the demand for trained accounting professionals and to support chartered accountants (CAs), is launching a new course for the second tier accountants or the accounting technicians.

India Edu News Dec 10, 2008

The Accounting Technicians would not only fill the gaps at the operational level, but would also ensure that the value chain in the accounting process does not suffer.

With the launch of this course, students who have enrolled for the CA course, but for some reasons are not able to complete the course would have an option of becoming an Accounting Technician.

However at the same time, there is a scope for them to acquire CA qualification even after qualifying the Accounting Technician Course.

That’s the positive side of the news.

Read further….

“People who have qualified intermediate exams and have completed three to five years of articleship, but couldn’t become CAs would be eligible for this one year course.”

“With the launch of this course, students who have enrolled for the CA course, but for some reasons are not able to complete the course would have an option of becoming an Accounting Technician.

However at the same time, there is a scope for them to acquire CA qualification even after qualifying the Accounting Technician Course.”

Check the application form on the ICAI website

This is to inform that as per amendment carried to the regulations vide notification dt 3rd December,2008 all such students who have passed either PE-II or Intermediate Exam and has completed the article training are eligible for grant of Accounting Technician Certificate on making an application . Accordingly all such eligible person are requested to make such application.

I believe it is an unethical way to convert the students who did not pass the flagship courses of ICAI to become a Accounting Technician. When anyone starts pursuing a professional qualification, he/she aspires to become a professional accountant. If he does not pass the exams, then this does not make him/her eligible to become a technician. A backward progression !!!

How CAT Technician progresses to become ACCA qualified Accountant in UK ?

“Whether you wish to start a career in finance, gain recognition for the wealth of skills and experience you have already achieved, or want accelerated progression to the ACCA Qualification and a more senior position in accountancy, ACCA’s Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) qualification will help you towards your career of choice.” Details here.

“Once you have completed all of the Certified Accounting Technician exams, you will automatically be transferred onto the ACCA Qualification and be awarded exemptions from the Part 1 papers 1.1–1.3 of the current syllabus (examined up until June 2007) or Papers F1–F3 on the new syllabus (examined from December 2007), unless you indicated on your registration form that you did not wish this transfer to be effected.” Details here

No such exemptions is spelt out for those who pass as Accounting Technician and want to pursue further professional qualification like CA or ICWA in India. This clearly indicates that such courses are beneficial more to the Institutes rather than students.

Ramesh Joshi, Practising Cost Accountant says

“ICAI has its core competency in Financial Accounting. Their efforts are it is heard, more with the objective to ensure “Articled Students” for practicing CAs. they are finding it difficult to get them. That is the reason they also lowered their entry level……… And all said and done, it is in their own core competency area…….. In ICAI we don’t hear the financial gain as a major factor, for them it is more in the nature of supporting their Members in Practice.”

Just look at the stipend an articled clerk gets for three years of articleship. A guess - 90% will never become a Chartered Accountant. ( I have never seen ICAI publish the exam passing rates on the website or their journal - a case of non disclosure. A hearsay the pass percentage is 2 %).

Regards,

Santosh Puthran

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You may like to read

1. Choosing an Accounting Qualification
2. Shortage of Accountants
3. Probing Accountant’s attitude to the Accounting body
4. Professional Body
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Yesterday I was browsing Management Accountants on Spock to know whether there any celebrity accountant in the list. I found Mr. Praveen Kadle, Managing Director of Tata Capital Ltd, a newly formed company of Tata Group.

One of the profile I came across is Usha Murali and impressed by the introduction on her profile.

“B.com, FICWA, CS with around 10 years experience in Cost and Management accounting. Presently working in the shared service centre of a multinational bank spearheading their Activity Based costing initiatives. Am interested in exchanging info and views on ABC,developing models in SAS etc”

The profile looks very impressive for anyone to connect. I read her views on cma_india yahoogroups about how she got a job offer for the position not open for ICWAI members. Her email below:

“Recently I was chased by a headhunter to attend an interview in an IT company for the post of “Sr manager-costing and MIS” but in the job profile given to me , they had mentioned “BE& MBA” with 8-10 years experience in costing/mis/pricing/lob wise profitability analysis/activity based costing etc..

I was initially not comfortable attending this interview as they had not asked for ICWAs.But the company called me up after going through my profile.I did the interview very well and I also got an offer (though I rejected it due to timing constraint being US company and also I got a better offer from a mnc bank which I will be joining in the new year).

Apart from domain knowledge, what they look for in a candidate is soft skills like good communication skills, negotiating skills, leadership skills and team spirit. In this competitive world, I think all these qualities help in contributing productively to the company and the profession at large. Hence I feel ICWAI should give lot of importance in developing these skills in the students. We “management accountants” as a group should take pride of being a member of ICWAI and help the profession to get the recognition it duly deserves by contributing to the growth of the company where we work.”

The role model for students who are pursing a qualification or junior members of profession are those who have reached the top of the corporate ladder or profession. You will find CIMA and ACCA publish articles in their magazine about their successful members and interviews how they managed to read the top. I feel, ICWAI journal - Management Accountant should take a cue from it and publish the profile of successful members, interview and views in the journal. For e.g. D K Sarraf , Director Finance, ONGC.

What about you ?

• Linkedin: You should start building your professional network on www.linkedin.com of people who you know and worked with them. Linkedin had impressive profiles of Management Accountants. Do not accept invitation from people you do not know as it may comprise your network.
• Spock: Start building your network on www.spock.com . This may be people who do not know them but you know they have got good credentials to be associated in your network. Spock validates the results about you on the internet and your network validates the results about you. I find people are shy to put their photo !!! Unless the network feels about you how they are going to get interested to connect. The objective of building and promoting yourself on spock is promoting yourself as a “Professional“. (Atleast you will never be out of any work at any time in life).

I gave a feedback to Spock, how will people be interested in their website. There should be some tangible benefits for the user. Here is something the website

What is my Search Network? Your Search Network is defined as the group of people that are most relevant to you when searching. Members of your network do not have to be members of Spock; the only requirement for inclusion in your network is that Spock has a search result for them from the internet.
Your Search Network includes: Trusted Contacts Users that you establish a Trust Relationship with on Spock Second Degree Trusted Contacts Users that have established a Trust relationship with your Trusted Contacts Saved Search Results People you have bookmarked through searching your address book, saving a search result on the site, or adding to your related people.
Your Search Network allows you to quickly aggregate all of the people in your life in one place so you can easily find information about them. You can search for people who are within two degrees of you, discover people that share mutual interests, activities, or professions, and make meaningful connections.

So start building your connections. So when you find a successful ICWAI on spock, please let me know the profile on spock. I will show it on the MA blog.

Share your comments on the blog post and I will happy to respond.

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Regards,

Santosh Puthran
Management Accountant Blog

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I got a very thoughtful greeting on the New Year. I would like to share it with you:

Life is like having a cup of tea.
You sit by the side of the window, lift the cup and take a careless sip,
Only to realize, somebody forgot to put the sugar.
Too lazy to go for it you somehow struggle through the sugarless cup.
Until you discover un-dissolved sugar crystals sitting at the bottom…

The last line really stirred me. My new year resolutions would be to

1. Stir Management Accountants to aspire like Dr D K Sarraf
2. Stir Management Accountants to participate in discussions and share their knowledge on their blogs.
3. Stir Management Accountants in practice to their own website.
4. Stir Management Accountants to become IT savvy - organise their calendar, address book, google reader, stumbleupon and bookmarks on the internet.
5. Stir Management Accountants to plan and travel around the globe for business and pleasure.

Is there anything more? Then I would like you to stir me up! You know where to post your comments .

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Regards,

Santosh Puthran

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