‘60,000 accountants needed by 2020’
by By Simon Ingka Crown, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on July 9, 2011, Saturday
KUCHING: Malaysia needs about 60,000 qualified accountants by year 2020, said Kolej Sunway Kuching (KSK) chief executive officer Joseph Lim.
“Currently, our nation is short by more than half that figure,” he said when met at the KSK examination techniques workshop held at MBKS auditorium yesterday.
Lim said the college had collaborated with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in organising the workshop to expose students to accounting.
He said the Ministry of Higher Education is serious about producing more accountants and collaborating with the ACCA in United Kingdom.
“The programme also promotes higher accounting education to school leavers,” he said.
Lim said the workshop was designed to help prepare students to sit for the SPM accounting papers.
“This is the most important part of studying accountancy. Once you have mastered the foundation level, it will be a useful guideline to go to a more advanced level,” he added.
“We hope that success in the paper will encourage students to pursue a career in accounting and finance.”
Lim believes the programmes initiated will help alleviate the current shortage.
“Our mission is to encourage youths of Sarawak to take up professional accountancy courses like Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) and ACCA that allow them to be qualified in the shortest time while learning the necessary skills to work in this demanding profession,” he said.
Earlier in his speech, Lim said KSK had become the first and only local institute in Sarawak and Sabah to be granted ACCA Platinum Approved Learning Partner Status-Student Tuition.
“Its outstanding achievement in June and December 2010 examination sittings has upgraded it from Gold to Platinum Approved Learning Partner Status,” he said.
To date, Sunway Kuching has produced a total of 176 ACCA affilliates, 64 Oxford Brookes University degree holders and 360 CAT finalists.
They have also produced two world prize winners and 16 Malaysian prize winners in CAT and ACCA exams.
About 413 students from 11 secondary schools attended the workshop.
The workshop was also attended by renowned accounting teacher Tan Hun Seang from SMK Bandar Kuching No.1 who has taught the subject at SPM and STPM level since 1992.
