Hi all,

Currently I'm working as an executive in a department(Holding company) dealings with my company's business monitoring unit and also from time to time will do due diligence and risk assessment (in terms of business, financial, economics etc) on projects that the subsidiaries are undertaking. Value of investment varies from RM10 Million and more.

I have a degree in accounting and are looking at my options to top up my knowledge.

I have browse through the syllabbus in ACCA and are quite impress with the topics covered such as business analysis, performance management, financial management.

But are ACCA only for accountants?

Or should I look for courses in MBA instead?

Because I felt of taking MBA when I have more experience in hand in future. I currently had started working for 2 and a half years only.

You views and comments are appreciated.

Thank you!

King

if u want to for further as a accountant, you can go for ACCA, CFA,CIA,ICAEW, but i feel that ICAEW and CFA is much better than ACCA. if you want to go future in commercial company,then u just go for MBA la, but financial is a big issue too, ACCA is much cheaper than MBA

since you have mentioned that you are interested to ACCA, you can consider to take it.

This post has been edited by yeehau86: Dec 20 2010, 09:11 AM

But how will the employer view it ( in regards with my future employer). Since if I have ACCA but I'm not working in audit firms or as account asssitant. Will this ACCA help me. But in knowledge wise i think ACCA would help me since the sylabbus in updated. I heard they have new sylbbus in 2011.

Not everyone who has ACCA is an accountant... like the CEO of Airasia... tony fernandez...

but yeah currently I think alot of people have ACCA and the new in thing is ICAEW and CFA... ICAEW u actually need to work in an audit firm or a firm that does ICAEW sponsorship... CFA just costs a bomb ^^;; 4k a pop if you fail it's 4k gone lol...

Well. ICAEW is nothing different than another accounting institutes' qualification. as the acronym comes from
Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), it is deemed at a equivalent standard to those
Chartered Accountant board worldwide, CAA (Aus), HKCA (HK), and other CA's.
So you cant really draw a comparison on ACCA and ICAEW as both have sylabus & coverage variance.
But a point to be considered is choose a board likely to be more "in favour" or "prefered" by the nation/company you want/are working with.

then again, CFA ( Chartered Financial Analyst) is another game. In a accountancy context, it would be irrelevant to
put in CFA's qualification into value comparison. Of course if one would pursue CFA, its another decision. But then the logic applies, you cant compare the cost of an Actuarial degree to accountancy (well, not locally at least).

A good advise is to take qualifications relevant to ur career/ future planning.

we must choose the course relevant to your carrer like if u want to venture into tax u may consider take ctim (chartered tax institut of malaysia

From wikipedia.
He was educated at Epsom College 1977-83 and then graduated from the London School of Economics in 1987. He worked very briefly with Virgin Atlantic as an auditor, subsequently becoming the financial controller for Richard Branson's Virgin Records in London from 1987 to 1989.[1]

some ppl once they got the ACCA qualification and started working in commercial center, no issues with that. The only thing is in order to pursue the MIA membership, you need to enter audit firm with at least 3 years experience, it depends what you want actually.

agree with @RyukA, CFA is totally a different game. It is not more to accoutant actually.

since you mentioned you need to do risk assessment; why not u take CIA? or just go for a top notch MBA, more relevant for ur job

True it's just another acronym but it's fast gaining more recognition than just ACCA imo... here in the UK there are barely any graduate schemes offering ACCA they all are offering ACA or ICAEW (same course/qualification) they ACCA has recently stepped up it's game to make the ACCA syllabus more like the ICAEW syllabus... at least audit wise... P7 from next year onward will look like the ICAEW Audit paper...

lol trust me he's the CEO of AirAsia and he holds ACCA qualifications (it's often mentioned during ACCA talks it's like yea ok.........)

Taking ACCA does not mean you must become an accountant. You can go for the knowledge learnt and one day when you are managing your own company, you will at least know what is happening when your accountant is reporting to you.

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Added on December 20, 2010, 1:37 pmTony Fernandes is ACCA member. CONFIRM! Cause I always hear during ACCA talks. Haha... And I myself is ACCA and unfortunately, I am still in Finance related line.

This post has been edited by yeowa: Dec 20 2010, 01:37 PM

The paragraph right below that

Tony was admitted as Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 1991 and became Fellow Member in 1996.

Upon his return to Malaysia, he became the youngest-ever managing director of Warner Music (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. Though an accountant, Fernandes is an amateur guitarist and also has achieved grade 8 piano which is where his musical inclination lies. He was responsible for revolutionising ethnic music, nasyid and dangdut, bringing them into the mainstream of contemporary Malaysian music.

He subsequently became the South East Asian regional vice-president for Warner Music Group from 1992-2001. When Time Warner Inc announced its merger with America Online Inc., Fernandes left to pursue his dream of starting a budget no-frills airline.

Even in Australia, most companies adapt accounting practice that recognises more of CPA's and Australian CA's, just like
ICAEW in UK, HKCA in HK, however on an international scope, ACCA is still one of the earliest to establish globally.
the Gaining of recognition is a process of standard globalisation, local demand would depend on practical preference.
But in big multinational companies, the distinction wont be huge as they emphasis on quality recruitment than anything else.

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Added on December 20, 2010, 2:11 pmPerhaps a rephrase would make things much better:

An accounting student should pursue Accounting standards qualifications for career purpose.
A student that has ACCA can also branch into other sectors, as no matter what ur career is, you are still
registered as a qualified accountant/auditor.

I am also pursuing CPA & CA qualfications through my accounting degree with no intention of being an accountant,
or worst (Auditor). lol.

This post has been edited by RyukA: Dec 20 2010, 02:11 PM

Why suddenly turned into wiki citing? haha

Anyway, perhaps I can contribute to the wiki too.

CFO of P&G Malaysia, (I forgot if he's still CFO or changed to Logistics Head, or is it the other way around), has a CIMA qualification.

This post has been edited by entryman: Dec 20 2010, 04:24 PM

Damn.... You are damn mean... hahaha... you are lucky because you are smart.

.

This post has been edited by Justin Wong: Nov 6 2011, 01:04 AM

ACCA for audit industry
MBA for commercial line

my opinion

Actually ACCA is for industry (finance, management accounting, internal audit and risk management) and public practice ( audit, insolvency, tax, consulting) - it is very flexible. ICEAW is an audit firm based qualification since you have to work in the firm before graduating, CIMA is a pure industry qualification.

MIA does not need any audit experience, as long as you have fulfilled the acca membership requirement you will get it.

MBA now days is getting crowded, unless you do something really awesome - it might not add too much value.

My friends father working as engineer and has a firm and he currently pursue acca

This thread is already 3 years old....

No need to revive it.

Engineer pursue acca?! So, how is he now? Since it's 3yrs oredi