Among non-finance professionals:

ICMA Australia growing popular

ICMA Australia qualification is becoming increasingly popular amongst the non-finance professionals especially in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions including countries such as Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, the Middle East and India. This has been clearly evident with the increasing number of qualified bankers, marketeers, engineers and lawyers joining the program during the recent past in Sri Lanka.

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants in Australia has three levels of membership said the Sri Lanka branch President Dr Nalaka Godahewa. They are Graduate Member, Associate Member and Full Member. Those students who complete the Graduate Conversion Program with the institute or those who have completed a professional qualification in finance can become a GMA level member. Depending on the work experience they are eligible to apply for AMA Membership he said.

The pinnacle of the qualification is CMA membership, awarded on completion of the seven day intensive workshop on Strategic Cost Management and Strategic Business Analysis. The value of this program was evident with more than thirty non-CMAs joining the program in last August, who were CEOs, Directors and very Senior Professionals from reputed companies.

“This was one rare occasion where we had such a diverse senior group of participants who were very participative”, Professor Janek Ratnatunga after completing the program. Prof Ratnatunga was the Monash University Finance and Accounting faculty head.

Sri Lanka branch Program Director Kapila Dodamgoda said that one main reason for the increasing popularity of the program is the unique exemption scheme available with the institute for a number of recognized professional and academic qualifications.

These include the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Bankers, the Law College, the Institute of Engineers, the Institute of Personnel Management and standard University degrees. More importantly these exemptions under the Graduate Conversion Program are offered at no cost at the moment. Under the Graduate Conversion Program the candidates are required to complete only four subjects and the CMA Workshop.

Certain selected MBA holders will get additional exemptions from two more subjects at the final level. With this they can complete the formal academic sessions within a six month period said Dodamgoda.