OBU - ACCA related

The following question posted by Jahnvi 

Hi, 

I request you that if you could please try and help me out, It will be of great help if you can contribute any relevant information you have regarding my queries as below;

Firstly, I want to go to Canada during september, 2016 for further studies after I am done with the 9 ACCA papers, that is in June, 2016 and I shall as well apply for the OBU degree, which hopefully if I pass, I shall be awarded with it on 21st September, 2016. (Period 31)

Since there are no universities or institutions that teach ACCA in Canada, therefore, I will need to opt in for a bachelor’s degree, but I will if all goes fine, I will have a OBU degree in September, but it will be late because I will need to have applied before If I wish to join for September intake to give time for student visa procedures as well.

Therefore, my question is, should I wait for January, 2017, & apply for masters after this degree or should I try and get admissions in another degree and try to claim transfer credits/ exemptions because bachelor’s are 4 years. Regarding masters, I am unaware if I will be eligible for masters after this degree because their system is totally different, as their requirements are very many, they need 4 years bachelor’s, 150 credit hours!! Which I don’t know if the OBU is equivalent to or not! Plus most even need 2 year work experience which unfortunately I lack. As well I am sure they won’t give me a direct entry, because I will have to study some courses like their tax and law papers before masters And the list just goes on!

Hence, please suggest me what should I consider doing? Another bachelor’s or I wait until 2017 and apply for masters, I dont even know if OBU degree is of any value in Canada or not, anyones in canada who’s really got knowledge about this, please share any information or advice because I am really confused. Or should I apply in another country if not Canada?! Any ideas or advises on what I can do will be of great help.

Thank you

Answered by trephena

@Jahnvi – well done for thinking ahead.

You have highlighted a problem area – the OBU degree is not recognised everywhere and neither is ACCA in the USA and most of Canada. Obviously you don’t really want to spend time and have to re-study the same subjects to just get the North American equivalent of what you already have. So this may call for an ‘out of the box’ solution.

I think you really need to stand back and ask yourself where realistically do you see yourself career-wise in 5 or 6 years time? What do you really want to do with your life and career? I don’t want to be a scaremongerer but I found the attached quite interesting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34066941

The inevitable fact is that many who are currently training as accountants will find themselves in the Western world at best struggling to find work and at worst replaced by artificial intelligence. The real survivors will be those with specialisms that artificial intelligence will find hard to replicate.

So my advice is to develop new skills and qualifications rather than mere alternatives that are basically the same as what you have or hope to have in a year’s time. The other thing to remember is that just because you intend to live in Canada doesn’ t mean you have to physically study there unless your mind is firmly set on being a CPA. Personally I think an MBA or other appropriate masters degree would advance your long term career prospects and this could be done distance learning. Choosing a distance learning Masters from a UK University solves the recognition problem. Another recommendation is going for the CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) qualification. ACCA is recognised by ACFE and if you wanted to do a Masters subsequently you could choose one that include aspects of criminology such as forensic accounting, fraud management or financial investigations. These types of specialist investigative roles are likely to increase going forward and unlikely ever (at least in the foreseeable future) to be replaced by machines

Source:Canada Visa
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ACCA to ICAEW to ICAA route

ACCA to ICAEW to ICAA route

For those who wish to hold more than one (1) professional body memberships, this is the post you should check before proceeding.

A lot of people are asking :

(i) Can i become ICAEW member if I have ACCA member?

(ii) How can I become ICAA member after ACCA member?

(iii) How many exemptions can I get from ICAEW if I am ACCA member?

So.... like you all, I wish to gain more than 1 professional body memberships. I've did research and these are the information I can gathered for those students or members who wish to pursue additional memberships after ACCA.

However you need to know this first, you got to have ACCA membership in order to go further than where you are right now. That means you need to complete 14 gruesome exam papers, obtained 3 hell-bend work experience and 14 Practical Experience (9 Essentials and 4 Options), and paid GBP 221 admission fee. I assume you did your research on ACCA membership and obtained the ACCA membership too.

Eventhough, the ACCA memberships (180,000 members encounting.....) had overtook ICAEW memberships in numbers; this means ACCA has more recognition than ICAEW. However, employers are still perceiving ICAEW as more prestigious than ACCA.

NOW.......

Once you've obtained ACCA membership, then you have to register yourself as ACA student.

ACCA students and affiliates - How to register as an ACA student

FIRST STEP, in order to join ICAEW, you’ll need to complete formal ACA training. You can register in two ways:

(a) Registering as a student in a training agreement – This applies if you have been offered an ICAEW training agreement with an ICAEW authorised training employer (ATE) at the time of registration. Students must have their training office number to complete registration. If they are not already authorised, your company can become an authorised training employer. It’s a free and straightforward process. Alternatively, if your manager or any other senior manager in your company is a qualified accountant, they may be eligible to become an authorised training principal.

(b) Registering as an Independent student – This applies if you have not yet secured a training agreement with an ICAEW ATE. You would be unable to gain any practical work experience as an independent student until you have secured an ICAEW training agreement. Independent students are required to fund their own studies and their registration fee must be paid upon registering and must be paid on a calendar yearly basis. In order to complete your registration, you must also email copies of your qualifications to applications@icaew.com.

SECOND, you go claim the maximum exam exemptions. As an ACCA student or affiliate you may be exempt from up to 12 of these exams by applying for Credit for Prior Learning (CPL). Bear in mind that you can only claim maximum of 12 papers (Passing P6 and P7 in ACCA)

Currently ACCA students and affiliates are able to claim credits free of charge providing registration and CPL application has been received by 30 September 2016 as follows (TABLE 1):

Subject	Qualifiers and criteria
Accounting	ACCA Membership
Assurance	ACCA Membership
Audit and Assurance	ACCA Membership and P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance
Business and Finance	ACCA Membership
Business Planning: Taxation	ACCA Membership and P6 Advanced Taxation
Business Strategy	ACCA Membership
Financial Accounting and Reporting	ACCA Membership
Financial Management	ACCA Membership
Law	ACCA Membership
Management Information	ACCA Membership
Principles of Taxation	ACCA Membership
Tax Compliance	ACCA Membership and P6 Advanced Taxation

Now you'll have 2 Advanced level papers and 1 case study to complete the whole ICAEW course.

Last, you need to tick off the checklist.

You are required to fulfill the requirements in order to become member of ICAEW, as below:

(i) registered as ACA student and claim 12 papers of exemption as stated in the above TABLE 1;

(ii) then passing last 2 final Advanced level papers (Business Strategy, Business Reporting) and a Case Study (3 out of 15 papers, not too difficult right??);

(iii) 2 years of experience requirements under ICAEW firm.

Hence, you can claim reciprocal agreement between ICAEW and ICAA via ICAEW-ICAA mutual-recognition agreement. Otherwise, reciprocal agreement cannot be claimed.

And NO, you MUST fulfill all the above requirements or else you would not get the ICAEW membership! Stop asking "what-if" (ie. did some articleship or no practical experience). ICAEW not founded by your parents, so wake up and smell the reality!

There is another way to claim ICAEW membership

Student who has passed all the examinations required for membership of professional accountancy bodies recognised under the European Union's Directive 2005/36/EC or Directive 2006/43/EC. Or you are a Member of the followings:

- Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA),

- Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA)

- Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (NZICA)

- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ)

- South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)

are eligible to apply for reciprocal membership under clause 12 of the Supplemental Royal Charter. Similar arrangements apply to Members of professional accountancy bodies recognised under the European Union's Directive 2005/36/EC or Directive 2006/43/EC.

Furthermore, ICAA Hand Book states:

"209.4 An applicant shall have been admitted to the overseas accounting body by the usual education and professional examination requirements, not by special recognition or any other mutual recognition agreement. 

209.5 An applicant shall have professional experience of not less than three (3) years in the case of an applicant who has graduated from a tertiary institution, or five (5) years in any other case."

Therefore you are a eligible to apply as a member of ICAA once obtained ICAEW membership.

WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE P6 ADVANCED TAXATION IN ACCA?

Well then you can either take 1 extra paper in ICAEW or you can write in ACCA to take additional exam (yeah you can do that eventhough you have passed all 14 papers and obtained membership) hence, passing the P6 will allow you to claim extra ICAEW exemption.

Source:

ICAEW

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