Global demand for accountants keeps rising

The CIMA qualification has become an international passport to work. By Tim Cooper, editor, email newsletters, CIMA. Read original article

Global demand for CIMA-qualified accountants has rocketed in the past five years, according to recruitment agencies.

David Jones, managing director of agency Robert Half, said: ‘It is a good time to be a CIMA-qualified accountant. Demand is as high as it has ever been. If you are recently qualified, you will be sought after anywhere in the world. The CIMA qualification is held in high esteem and the practical experience element makes it highly advantageous for newly-qualifieds.’

This is particularly the case for people with experience in the City of London. Jones said: ‘If you have worked for a major investment bank in London, and you want to go and work anywhere, you are the most in-demand person on the planet.’

Effects of technology and globalisation

Globalisation, international accounting standards and offshoring of accountancy processes have also made globetrotting easier for finance professionals.

According to Rick Sturge, CIMA’s director of employer strategic development, the trend towards business process outsourcing (BPO) is boosting the demand for CIMA skills at home and abroad. Technology is enabling accounting processes to be undertaken remotely. It is also removing the need for many of the traditional transactional activities. This shifts the focus to analytics and business decision support.

Sturge said: 'This globalisation drives the need for consistent skill, application and quality across different countries. In outsourcing, the retained function is freed up to focus on driving the business and creating shareholder value. The outsourcer is progressively being asked to provide more value creation skills within the service delivery team. Both of these are creating more need for CIMA skills.'

Finance and accounting outsourcing (FAO) is becoming a widely adopted component of finance restructuring in large organisations. Last year, Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes, Lindt, Diageo, GSK and other large multinational firms all embarked on FAO projects.

Business relevance - worldwide

The CIMA qualification is designed to be relevant anywhere in the world. It is the only international professional qualification with a syllabus solely focused on the training of management accountants in business.

CIMA is also the only professional accounting body that revises its syllabus every four years. This ensures that the syllabus reflects the current needs of business. All of its content is international in scope and the structure has been carefully considered to reflect the importance of practical experience as well as exams.

The qualification is also a career-long commitment to high professional standards and adherence to an international code of ethics - two increasingly important factors in world markets.

Compare and contrast with Apparently accountants are going out of fashion in the west where Princeton University Professor Alan Blinder predicts that in the long term even high standard professional positions will risk being outsourced.

He might be right, but I doubt it will happen in my lifetime