CA may end up as a college course. With changing business environment
and expectations from chartered accountants (CAs), world’s
second-largest accounting body Institute of Chartered Accountants of
India (ICAI) is now contemplating making residential classes for CA
studies compulsory in coming days.
“ICAI is in the process of
setting up the network of Centre of Excellence in parts of the country
that will be utilised to conduct special training programmes for our
members. Also, we would create an arrangement wherein our students can
opt for stay in the proposed centres and attend classes for a certain
period instead of just studying through distant learning process.
The
classes would be made compulsory once we have adequate infrastructure
in place,” said chairman of board of studies of ICAI Jaydeep Shah. He
was in Vadodara to attend the 4th National Convention of CA students
jointly organised by ICAI and Western India CA Students Association.
He
added the classes for CA students would be voluntary initially to
familiarise them about the concept before we make it compulsory. It is
setting up Centres of Excellence at an investment of about Rs 150
crore. It is expected that the network would be in place in the next
couple of years. So far there was no provision for students to attend
any classes. They had to study from the material sent by ICAI. Its
facilities in major cities conduct regular classes for students. Most
of the major cities have their own infrastructure in place for offering
100-hour mandatory training to students. ICAI started offering study
material in digital format and virtual classes through e-learning
platform.
It is aiming to offer campus environment on the
lines of modern B-schools, which is missing in studies for chartered
accountancy so far.
It is believed that ICAI’s existing
infrastructure would take care of certain portions of the syllabus
while the proposed centres will train students in crucial subject areas
through residential classes.
“For last couple of years, ICAI
has started stressing on communication and presentation skills to
compete with students from other courses and institutes. Now having
residential course would enable us to study in a better manner. We
would also be able to have the actual feel of the course since we would
be in the company of students from various parts,” said
vice-chairperson of Western India Chartered Accountant Students’
Association of Baroda Branch Shefali Shah
CAclubindia
