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“Thus, the conference today is
timely as it provides us with the right
platform to discuss and understand
what else is needed to produce worldclass, industry-ready professional
accountants. By this, I mean good
accountants with good values who
are very professional,” she said.
In the forum that followed, a
four-strong panel further expounded
the qualities the industry seeks in new
hires for the accounting and finance
field. Representing the voice of the
industry and academia were Datuk
Nur Jazlan Mohamed, chairman of the
Public Accounts Committee (PAC);
Dato’ Abdul Rauf Rashid, Country
Managing Partner of EY; Dr Lau
Chee Kwong, Associate Professor of
Accounting at Nottingham University
Business School; and Robert Lim,
Head of HR Strategy at CIMB.
Dato’ Rauf candidly shared that
the difference between local and
foreign graduates lies not in their
technical capabilities but their soft
skills. “In professional services firms
like EY, the accounting knowledge
and skills are provided by us through
professional qualification training
such as the ACCA. The bit that we
are looking for, during interviews, is
candidates with all-round capabilities.
“In the business world, it’s not
about how much you know about
accounting standards but how well
you can articulate the issue. Our value
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November 2014
as professional accountants lies in our
ability to slice, dice and analyse the
problem to come up with a solution
for the client. To be able to do that,
we need to be good at thinking and
putting it forward to the people who
need it,” he said.
Speaking for the public sector,
Datuk Nur Jazlan said that the need
for professional accountants is just as
urgent in the public sector as in the
private: “Our academics should also
focus on grooming talents for the
public sector. In terms of the national
budget, the public sector spends about
RM270 billion every year. There
is a huge demand for professional
accountants in civil service to look
after how the government spends the
money, especially with the accounting
system in the government sector
changing to the accrual system next
year.”
To provide the academicians with
a comprehensive understanding of
the accounting profession, the ACCA
Learning Conference included a
session on Integrated Reporting
updates provided by Jonathan Labrey,
Director of Policy and Regulations
at the International Integrated
Reporting Council (IIRC). Other
speakers include Wang Lihua, ACCA
Programme Leader at Sichuan
University in China, and Alison
McHugh, Director of Education
Development at ACCA.