ACCA is listening and adapting …

I have just attended the ACCA Learning Partners’ Conference and felt extremely delighted that ACCA has taken the bold step to move forward in line with the creation and demand of the new generation Accountants.

The conference was well organised and took on a forum where 4 speakers were invited on stage to discuss on the topic of “e-professional”. It has been long known that technologies have indeed changed our lifestyles and the way we work. ACCA has taken the initiative by first introducing e-Assessment into the exam. The ultimate goal is to produce ACCA graduates who are “work ready” once they graduated. The present ACCA exam tackles only understanding of principles and theories and assessment takes the form of mostly handwritten exams.

E-assessment means that the conventional handwriting of answers being scrapped entirely; replaced by typing of answers using keyboard. Not much of the method for e-assessment was disclosed and the e-assessment exam format is kept extremely classified. All I can say is that it is not restricted to MCQs, you could probably get fill in the blanks, and anything is possible even perhaps 3D gaming style of questioning (my own opinion since computer games are so popular nowadays) and we just have to wait anxiously for the final announcement by ACCA.

ACCA Examination Board intends to bring the assessment of work place skills directly to the exam hall, thereby producing students who are definitely in great demand by employers worldwide and most importantly “e-work ready”. Picture this, an ACCA graduate without any working experience would be ever ready to perform without much supervision and without further on the job training and can immediately handle spreadsheet formulas, SAP, Oracle, etc. I remember when I was still studying for ACCA, I haven’t heard of SAP or even Oracle and I wasn’t very fortunate as the companies I worked for couldn’t afford such powerful softwares.

During the conference, I have the opportunity to speak to the representatives of one speaker from Malaysia Practise Enterprise Centre (MyPEC) and they referred me to their website www.malaysiapec.com on virtual training ground for employees that mimic a real organisation where scenarios could be programmed into the simulation and participants are trained just like where pilots are trained in a flight simulator.

With such revolutionary changes, I would envisioned that in the near future every student would be bringing their own notebook to lectures, the only thing I worry is the distraction of their Facebook account, lol.

What does the future hold for the new generation of ACCA graduates? Please leave a comment as I believe ACCA would definitely love to hear from the Generation Y ACCA students. I would forward your comments to ACCA office (Please be considerate with your comments and avoid making offensive statement)