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opinion only when the figures did not add up. Now they are
strategic leaders in companies and public sector bodies. In most
modern businesses around the world, the finance team is the only
group who possess a knowledge of an enterprise in depth and in
breadth to advise on strategic development. And in many companies,
the group finance director is also the group strategy director. In
the business world with vast skill shortages, the finance director, as
much as the HR director, will help to come up with appropriate people
strategies. The role of the financial professional has changed
rapidly – in both big and small businesses. In an environment of
greater globalisation, accountability, transparency, teamwork and
effectiveness, two key criteria emerged. The financial professional
of the future needs to possess both detailed technical accounting
skills and a broad strategic vision. One alone is not enough. And
this is just what the ACCA qualification enables people to become –
financial experts who can transfer their skills to the public or
private sectors, in large or small business, anywhere around the
world. It is almost a year since ACCA [the Association of
Chartered Certified Accountants] opened its office in Bangladesh.
According to ACCA, more people are choosing a career in accountancy
that makes Bangladesh one of the ACCA's fastest-growing markets.
'ACCA is a global organisation with a global qualification. The ACCA
professional qualification provides a common standard throughout the
world. We have 362,000 students and 131,500 members in 170 countries
worldwide,' Mohua Rashid, country manager of ACCA Bangladesh said.
She said studying to be an accountant with ACCA is a success story
in Bangladesh. Taken as part of the Indian sub-continent, the
country, together with Pakistan and India has seen a 26.5 per cent
total increase in member and student numbers from 2007, so more
people in the sub- continent are choosing to become accountants.
But what is the future? Mohua said, 'The sheer speed of business life
has increased rapidly. In the 21st century this means that management
training and development will have to alter drastically.' This is
something ACCA recently discovered as part of its research into
management training, called 'the future of professional development'.
This is the latest report in ACCA's Insight Series, which look at
professional development trends around the world. This new report
talks about what happens after people have qualified in a profession.
Continuing Professional Development, or CPD, often becomes an
integral part of being an ACCA member once qualified. 'We insist
that members undertake regular CPD programmes so they remain up to
date with the work that they do. This is a similar case in a lot of
professions – in law and medicine', she pointed out. According to
the report, if continuing professional development programmes are to
be fit for purpose, keep up with regulatory change and provide
acceptable returns on the millions of cash invested each year, then a
radical overhaul is needed. ACCA believes strongly that the
standard business type lectures cannot survive. Like students,
business professionals need immediate access to good quality
information, and they need to know how to apply it to their work.
Mohua said the one size fits all course will need to be more
practical, and allow for professional peers to network. Time demands
will also have to be met –and this is where the global phenomena of
LinkedIn and Facebook have seen a huge demand – where like minded
people met on line to discuss issues and address work based problems.
'Looking ahead, financial professionals will need faster access to
knowledge and information due to the pace and frequency of
regulatory, economic and business changes', she observed. She adds
that employers around the world also face a challenge to ensure that
development programmes offer enough variety to appeal to all four
generations of workers, from Generation Y – those born in the 1980s
through to Baby Boomers – those born in the 1940s.
