CA may end up as college course

Last updated: 09 July 2007


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
Join CCI Pro

Category Career   Report

  4155 Views

Comments



More »