Sunway TES CAE Collaborates with JPP and ACCA to Further Build Malaysia’s Accountancy Talent Pool

Sunway TES Centre for Accountancy Excellence (CAE) in a move to further promote professional accounting programmes towards building Malaysia’s accountancy talent pool today aligned itself with a new initiative. This initiative is to better Malaysia’s Polytechnic syllabi of the 3-year Diploma in Accountancy programme, ensuring its standards are up to par with the international standards of the professional accountancy certification. The initiative is supported by Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) and Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputra (YPPB).

Today, the initiative was sealed with the exchanging of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Dr Lee Weng Keng, CEO, Education and Healthcare Division, Sunway Group and Tuan Haji Mohd Ghaus Ab Kadir, Deputy Director General, Department of Polytechnic Education, Ministry of Higher Education.

Tengku Azian Shahriman, Teo Ee Sing, Datuk Alexandra Chin, Tuan Haji Mohd Ghaus Ab Kadir, YB Dato’ Seri Haji Idris Jusoh, Helen Brand, Dr Lee Weng Keng and Dr Elizabeth Lee

“The signing and exchanging of the MoU is much in line with our commitment to help realise the government’s goal under EPP 17 of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), that is, to transform Malaysia into a leading Accountancy hub in the Asia Pacific region. As you may be aware, Sunway TES has been designated as the Centre for Accountancy Excellence (CAE) by the Government via PEMANDU to lead in this initiative. Much has been accomplished so far, and today’s event is another effort in the right direction”, said Dr Lee Weng Keng.

The MoU is a joint understanding to promote polytechnics as a head-start institution and hub in providing ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) professional accounting programmes to those who are interested to become chartered certified accountants as to enhance the employability of the Polytechnics’ graduates.

The collaboration includes initiating Train-the-Lecturers programme, Intensive English Programme, preparatory class for ACCA papers of F5 Performance Management and F6 Malaysian Taxation. Politeknik Port Dickson (PPD) has been chosen to pilot the initiative.

“The Department of Polytechnic Education believes that it is important to work together with ACCA Malaysia and Sunway TES CAE to meet the job market’s demand for accounting professionals. We hope that with the collaborative activities, the polytechnic’s accountancy programmes will be at par with other internationally recognised accountancy programmes. This is in line with one of the aspirations of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 for Higher Education, whereby we hope that our graduates will be globally recognised and well accepted for employment in multinational companies”, said Tuan Haji Mohd Ghaus.

At the same ceremony, a separate MoU was exchanged between ACCA and the Department of Polytechnic Education, Ministry of Higher Education. The ceremony was witnessed by YB Dato’ Seri Haji Idris Jusoh, Minister of Higher Education, Malaysia.

Helen Brand OBE, ACCA’s chief executive, said: “The cooperation we embark with the Ministry of Higher Education today will lead towards the training and education needed to develop the professional accountants Malaysia requires to fulfil its economic aspirations. This includes the up-skilling of polytechnic lecturers and tutors, as well as supporting the first batch of 160 students from polytechnic colleges across Malaysia to study the ACCA Qualification.”

This cooperation also opens the door towards enabling ACCA to assess the Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Accountancy programmes offered at polytechnic colleges with the objective of awarding appropriate level of exemptions from the ACCA Qualification. ACCA will also assess several polytechnic colleges under the purview of the Ministry of Higher Education, and guide those that meet specific quality criteria to become an ACCA Approved Learning Partner.

Notable guests included Datuk Alexandra Chin, ACCA President; Brian McEnery, ACCA Deputy President; Leo Lee, ACCA Vice President; David Chin, Head of ACCA Malaysia; Hishamuddin Jalil, Head, Strategic Development and Partnership; Tengku Azian, Director, PEMANDU; Raja Azura, Chief Executive Officer and Afzan Mahmood, Head of Scholar Management from YPPB; Teo Ee Sing, Executive Director of Sunway TES CAE and Dr Elizabeth Lee, Senior Executive Director, Sunway Education Group and Sunway University. Also present were Sunway TES CAE students and YPPB scholars at Sunway TES CAE.