More and more Jamaicans are joining the ranks of those that count our profits and loss, joining their tailor-made suits to their calculators. - Contributed

The Association of Char-tered Certified Accountants (ACCA) recently attended a meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre.

The meeting was sponsored by the ACCA to bring students up to date on new requirements for persons sitting the ACCA examinations after June 2007. The meeting was conducted by ACCA United Kingdom's Training & Development Manager, Lucy Taylor and Gareth Owen, manager qualifications development. Pub-lishers BPP and FTC Kaplan were represented by Richard Clarke and Tom Clendon respectively.

According to Esther Le Gendre, head of the ACCA Caribbean, more than 17,000 students in the Caribbean are currently pursuing ACCA qualifications at the technical (Certified Accounting Technician or CAT ) and professional (ACCA) levels.

"From June 2007," she said, "the ACCA examinations have been modified to take into account evolving employer needs and the international regulatory landscape. The qualification embeds the global accounting standards set by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and has a strong focus on professional values, ethics and governance."

The ACCA team has also held meetings at the Courtleigh Hotel with 40 tuition providers from the territory which has the second largest number of ACCA students in the Caribbean, after Trinidad and Tobago.

Enhancement

The meetings focused on the enhancement of course delivery skills, features of the new qualification and examiners' comments.

Similar meetings were held in Trinidad with about 50 tuition providers attending from Guyana, St. Kitts, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Bahamas and Grenada.

ACCA claims that its current professional scheme is the world's fastest growing international accounting qualification with a new student registering every eight minutes.

There are currently some 4,000 qualified ACCA professionals in the Caribbean working in the biggest accounting firms as well as in the local private and public sectors.