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May George

The number of young people enrolling  in the Qualification Programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants has increased five-fold since 2003, according to Jonathan Ng Tai-sing, the institute's director, student education and training.
'The programme was launched in 1999 and our numbers go back five years.
'In 2003, we had  around 3,000, but last year 15,000 people studied in  the programme.'
Mr Ng said part of the reason for the huge increase in numbers was the institute's success at positioning the brand,  which had gained recognition with bodies around the world.
Most of the students are about 22 years old and are  straight out of university. Many of them  will be working for one of the  Big Four accounting firms.
Many of them will change  jobs after they complete the programme, taking the opportunity to specialise in one area.
They will also get  the chance to move up the corporate ladder to a more attractive remuneration package, perhaps provided by a new employer once they have qualified.
The programme consists of four modules - Financial Reporting, Financial Management, Auditing and Information Management, and Taxation - which can be studied in three sessions throughout the calendar year.
'For really fast-track smart students, they can do the course in 13 months,' Mr Ng said. But generally, students take a little longer.
Mr Ng said there  was a huge demand for those with professional accounting qualifications. Within the China region firms are crying out for skilled accountants,  which is why it is such an attractive career area to go into.
He said the Qualification Programme was starting to gain greater  recognition with  chartered accountancy bodies all over the world.
And this sent a message to the key stakeholders - the students,  the Big Four accountancy firms and the other big multinational firms. 'For the students taking part in the programme, those who have taken accountancy degrees at university can get  direct entry.
'But we have an increasing number of non-relevant undergraduates - those not doing accountancy - who then take part in the conversion programme,' Mr Ng said.
'This has opened up the gate to a vast number of graduates who have not studied accountancy or even a business subject. Our statistics tell  us that students from that background actually performed better than the accountancy graduates.
'This is for a whole bunch of reasons. These people are smart; they have strong analytical skills, so if they decide to pursue the accountancy profession they really have the potential.
'Accountancy students can be more complacent because they have already studied accountancy for three years at university, whereas those who have not done accountancy have to catch up.'
In previous years, 90 per cent of those taking part in the Qualification Programme had studied accounting at university.  That number had dropped to 65 per cent, Mr Ng said. 'So it's not uncommon for us to see the prizewinners being those from a non-accounting background. I think it's really important for our profession because we want to attract the top-notch, high-calibre candidates, so it's not so much a matter of their background.'
Mr Ng also pointed out that qualifying as a certified public accountant (CPA) did not mean a career limited to being an auditor, but that many other opportunities awaited skilled workers.
'We see the Qualification Programme as a very basic starting point to do a lot of things. Many people have the misconception that most of our members are working in CPA firms as auditors. Yet the majority of our members are working in businesses.'
Mr Ng said that former Qualification Programme participants had also become chief financial officers and finance directors in commercial firms, which was why the mix of technical and soft skills taught in the    course were so important.
Professional accountants these days need good presentation skills, the ability to build and apply knowledge, and the strength to be able to stand up and speak their mind.
Twenty per cent of each of the four modules consists of workshops, on which the students are assessed, which tests their preparation and application skills. Mr Ng said, for those taking part in the programme, it built a skill set over different disciplines.
After taking part in the Qualification Programme, participants  often went to specialise in one area such as corporate governance, corporate finance, forensic accounting, consulting or high management, Mr Ng said.



Programme attracts thousands