(9th June 09) The Elevation Programme - A new route for experienced professionals to Chartered Accountancy

In a ground-breaking addition to its 120-year training model, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) has this week launched the ‘Elevation Programme’, a new entry route to the profession for experienced professionals. This innovative development will be welcome news to graduates with some years spent in the workplace, looking to take their careers to the next level.

Since 1888, Ireland’s premier accounting professionals, Chartered Accountants, have been exclusively trained through a system involving a training contract between the student and their employer, usually a firm of chartered accountants.  Yet 70% of qualified Chartered Accountants go on to work in business rather than continue in practice. The Elevation Programme is the latest in a series of initiatives following ICAI’s strategic review in 2004 that seek to redress the balance.

The 2008 Annual Report of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority indicates that there are over 11,000 accountancy students between the ages of 25 and 34. ICAI has traditionally not been strong in this catchment but the Elevation Programme plans to change that. 

The new programme is designed to appeal to the more mature graduate who has been in the workforce for a number of years. The programme is available in ten centres nationwide and is based on evening and weekend engagement. The flexibility that the new Elevation Programme introduces recognises the different life circumstances and challenges that experienced graduates have, and provides them with a greater ownership of their own studies.

Who can apply: The new mature route is aimed at graduates (including graduates from the Institute of Accounting Technicians in Ireland).  To be eligible to enrol on this route the student will have to have worked for at least four years prior to registration. For further details visit www.elevationprogramme.net

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