Why ACCA???

   The number of people including students, parents, professionals asking this question to us is unbelievable hence we think it only makes sense that we put together this article for the benefit of all. However before we proceed, there are a couple of disclaimers that we would like to make; first is that this article is in no way written to demean any other professional course or professional body hence the purpose is for knowledge sharing only. Secondly, these are our personal views hence the experience and views may differ from person to person, and we agree there are different perspectives hence we leave the final conclusion to yourselves.

OK with that out of our way we can now start to talk about the course which is so close to our hearts, ACCA! The reasons why we believe ACCA should be a natural choice for any finance and accounting professional is umpteen however we will try and put only the most pressing. So here goes the list:

Globally Acceptable- The acceptability of ACCA qualification is probably unbeatable, the reason for that the ACCA members work in over 180 countries, and this covers almost the whole globe. Therefore anyone who does become part of this fastest growing global body can truly say they are with international body with fellow members almost everywhere in the world. Obviously, just because the members are everywhere in the world shouldn’t be the reason why ACCA should be pursued, however if you rethink, you would realise that the qualification is such that you can work anywhere in the world. In such dynamic times, we are sure no one would like to say no to the advantages of global mobility. We know so many who have pursued ACCA in UK and made careers in India, Middle East, Australia, etc.

Huge Local opportunities – Since we are one of the only platforms which is truly dedicated to ACCA, we do work with the ACCA teams to understand how the local (Indian markets) are reacting towards the qualification. And you would be happy to know the response has always been a lot more positive than the one before. Obviously one would say “why would ACCA body say anything bad about themselves?” Yes you’re right, hence we looked at the jobs platform on accaglobal and it was all there in black and white. There were 700 plus jobs in India, with over 37000 globally. So leaving the global jobs, and focusing on India, these jobs were all very much active, some posted a day ago while most posted over the period of week and month. We of course wanted to do out due diligence hence checked with ACCA if all the jobs that are there are actually active and not like other platforms where jobs have been posted forever, and the answer was that ACCA is an ethical body hence if the jobs are filled and employers have informed them about it, they will remove all the filled positions. Now since the jobs are very much there, however are they any good, well that brings us to out next reason, opportunities galore! This was the case when we also checked on Linkedin for ACCA jobs and there lots of opportunities there as well for ACCA part and fully qualified professionals.

Opportunities in every sector – Obviously it’s not just about the number of jobs, quality of jobs is equally important right? Well we hear you, and therefore as part of our due diligence we checked further and to our delight the jobs were in all sectors and at all levels. Be it Tax, Audit, Finance, Reporting, to levels like Associate director, CFO, Controller, Analyst etc. And obviously the research would be incomplete if we didn’t check if these companies were any good, like we said it’s about the quality, well the good news is the biggest numbers of jobs were from well renowned organisations and MNC’s like BNY Mellon, Credit Suisse, Northern Trust, Mercer, J P Morgan, Shell, etc. Needless to say, the jobs were also there from all the Big4’s for their Assurance and Advisory departments as well as shared service centres. This brings another important point that needs some clarity, are there any good jobs at shared service centres (SSC).

HUGE number of opportunities at SSC’s – India has been for far too long known for the global stop for outsourcing therefore it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if the world has decided to send their finance and accounting jobs to India like they have done to several of their jobs like IT and customer service. Therefore these jobs are absolutely normal, quite highly paid, perks of working in huge MNC’s with global work culture, travel all over the world and lastly expedited growth if you perform well. I don’t know about you, but if I were looking for a job, I would target these SSC’s to make my career. Therefore please don’t fall for anyone who says that jobs in SSC’s in anyways are demeaning, huge number of highly qualified professionals including people from IIM’s and IIT’s are working in these SSC’s.

Flexibility like no other - Lastly we would like to add focus on one of the biggest operational benefits of pursing ACCA, which you may already know or would have heard about it, the flexibility. The course allows flexibility in everything. So you can first of all start ACCA as early as just after 10^th to whenever you wish like. At each of the stages of your academics there are possible exemptions in the ACCA course therefore you don’t resit/redo what you have already studied. Secondly you can sit one paper at a time instead of focusing on groups which makes course so much more doable, can you imagine focusing on only one thing at a time, the efforts put in can definitely result in positive outcome. Additionally the papers are done every quarter therefore you don’t need to rush, take it easy and do 1 paper at a time. Also the internship (Articleship) requirement is upto the students when they want to start, the 3 year experience can be from before joining ACCA, while studying and even after completing the ACCA. Therefore if you just want to focus on ACCA and complete the studies, well then ACCA is your best bet. No wonder the pass rates are sometimes as high as 50% in some of the skill level papers.

So in all, the reasons are quite a few and we can keep probably writing, however we believe this article gives you enough knowhow about why pursuing ACCA makes so much more sense. We are keen to hear your feedback so please do write to us and also share this article as much as possible so that people get benefit from pursuing such a brilliant course called ACCA!