ICAEW overview

Hi, this will be my first post. It is about the course I am studying now. I will be introducing to you all about the general information of ICAEW since it is quite a new course in Malaysia and many people are not familiar with it.

What is ICAEW?

The ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) is a professional acoountancy body in Europe. It offers 2 qualifications: CFAB and ACA. So, in Malaysia we call this course ICAEW.

What is CFAB?

CFAB (Certificate in Finance, Accounting and Business) leading to ACA (Associate of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) is an internationally recognised certificate that provides essential knowledge in the fundamentals of finance, accounting and business. 

CFAB is just like any other foundation/pre-university programmes. You start with a foundation/ pre-university programme and then you enter a degree. It is the same with CFAB and ACA. The difference is that CFAB is a certificate and ACA is a professional accounting programme.

How long does it take to complete ICAEW?

It takes around 5.5 years to 7.5 years to complete CFAB and ACA. CFAB takes a minimum of 18 months/1.5years to complete while ACA takes a minimum of 4 years, provided you pass all exams in first attempt and that the duration of ACA training contract is 3 years.

How is CFAB course structure like?

CFAB consists of 6 papers: accounting, assurance, business finance, law, management information and principles of taxation. In Sunway, you have to take additional 4 subjects: English I, II and III, business mathematics, interpersonal communication and thinking skills. These 4 subjects you don't have to take if you complete your A-levels, STPM or UEC. Also, there are 2 MPU subjects to be taken for Malaysians: Hubungan Etnik and Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia. It is in bahasa Melayu. For foreign students, you too have to take 2 MPU subjects: Bahasa Melayu and Malaysian Studies. 

After you completed all this subjects and papers, you will have your work-based learning (WBL), in other words internship, for 3 months in one of the ICAEW Authorised Training Employer. In Sunway, you will complete CFAB in 6 semesters include the 3 months WBL.


CFAB's exam

It is 100% exam-based, no coursework for all the 6 main papers. They are ALL multiple choice questions (MCQ) with about 40-50 questions for each paper with the EXCEPTION for accounting and Principle of Taxation. For accounting, you will have a long question and 24 MCQ and for Tax, you will have some of the questions to fill in the blank. It is computer based and you will take the exam in one of the college's computer rooms. The exam duration is 1.5 hours. To prepare students for the real exam situations and to familiar the students with the types of questions, you will have 2 tests and a mock exam before the final exam. The 2 tests and the mock exam are both prepared by the college's lecturer while the final exam is from the UK.

Do you think you can cheat during the exam? Definitely NO! Why? All the questions are scrambled for the 2 tests and the mock exam. For the final, the questions are still scrambled and they will have a few sets of paper. So, that means some students will get paper A while the others will get paper B.

Are the questions tough? YES for the final. Why? Most of the students said that most of the final questions are almost unrelated to the text book. However, I think that it is still related, it is just that the questions change a little to more like a real life situation and you just need to take some time and figure it. That's what make an exam an exam.

When will we get the results? For the tests and the mock exam, you will get it right after you finish your exam. It will appear on the computer screen. For the final, you will have to wait probably around 24 hours and you will have to check it in the ICAEW website.

*Only final exam result determines whether you will fail or pass!!

How is ACA course structure like?

Once you have completed CFAB, then you will be going for ACA which consists of 2 stages: professional stage and advance stage. Professional stage consists of 6 papers: Business planning: taxation, business strategy, audit and assurance, financial accounting and reporting, financial management and tax compliance, which you may be completing in a year. For the Advance stage, you will have a case study and 2 papers: corporate reporting and strategic business management. In Sunway, you will be doing your Advance stage paper while working under a training contract with an ICAEW Authorised Training Employer for a minimum of 3 years. However, the training contract is depend on the company, some may require you to work for 5 years. 


ACA's exam

It is ALL written exam and it is also 100% exam-based. The time duration... I am not very sure because I am still in CFAB. However, I heard that is around 2.5 hours. I've seen one of the papers, it has around 3 or 4 questions. You will have a situation for each questions (the passage is quite long >.<) and you will have to answer all the sub-questions.


How many exam's attempts? 

You will ONLY have a total of 4 attempts for each paper for CFAB (the 6 papers) and ACA's professional stage exam. If you fail all 4 attempts, you are out of the course!

However, for ACA's advance stage exam you will have UNLIMITED attempts! Isn't it good?

What's after ACA?

You will be a member with the ICAEW and Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA). You will then be a chartered accountant ! 

Summary of pathway to the ICAEW

Image by Sunway College

What's the entry requirement for CFAB?

You must complete your SPM/O-level/IGCSE or equivalent with a minimum of 5 distinctions, including mathematics and english. Apparently, one of my friends did not get a distinction for english, so he has to retake the paper or else he is out of this programme. 

Also, you must be at least 16 years old. However, the age limit is not quite strict because there's a 14 years old boy who succeed in entering this programme. They set the age limit because in Malaysia, you have to be at least 16 years old to work. So the boy could not go for WBL. 

Besides, you DO NOT need to have accounting background if you want to enter CFAB since the lecturers will teach you everything from basics. Those with accounting or economic background have an added advantage.

How much does ICAEW cost?

The whole course cost around RM 67k. For CFAB, it costs around RM 30k and for ACA it costs around RM 37k. 

The fees is not fixed, it increases every year and it depends on the currency.

For section E, you need to pay in UK pounds while from section A to D, you will have to pay in RM. Apparently during the training contract, all of the fees will be sponsored by your employers from big companies while some employers from a small to medium sized companies will only sponsor partially. So, actually the whole programme will be so much cheaper. 


Are there any scholarships available?

YES, a definite yes! Sunway College does offer scholarships to those who want to study this programme. In fact, Sunway offers full scholarship for the whole programme (CFAB and ACA) to those who enter CFAB for SPM 9A's achievers under Sunway-ICAEW Global Accountant Scholarship Scheme. This scholarship will fund the tuition fees and exam fees. However, the scholarship will be forfeited if you fail any of the papers for the second time. This means that you will be still be given a chance for each paper but the second retake you will still have to pay.

To those who do not achieve 9A's in SPM or if you are a graduate from STPM, A-levels or UEC, fret not, you can apply for the Tan Sri Dato' Seri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah Entrance Scholarship.

Update: Now, they also offered a new scholarship, which is the Peneraju Professional Akauntan Muda (PPAM). According to the website, it is availabe to SPM leavers, Diploma Graduates and 3rd year accounting students. It generally covers the tuition fees, monthly allowance and accomodation. What's more is that you only need to obtain 7A's in SPM (I do not know if it is A+ or only As). However, from what I know, this scholarship is only available to Bumiputera. If you are not one, maybe you can try to ask Sun-TES.

(Update: The SPM 9A's scholarship only offers full scholarship for the whole programme (CFAB and ICAEW) if you scored 9A +. For those who only achieved 9A's without plus, scholarship is available for only CFAB level.)

Where is ICAEW available?

CFAB and ACA are now only available in Sunway College if you are in Malaysia. Other countries such as UK and China do offer ICAEW too but I am not too sure which colleges offer it. 

For more information, you can visit ICAEW's website, Sunway College's website or personally visit Sunway College. The college's address is: No 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500, Selangor, Malaysia.

So, this is the end of this blog. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or email to me. 

*(The information above is applicable to the point in time, may subject to changes)