The Institute of Technology, Sligo, recently received approval for a new three year BA (Hons) in Accounting (SG146).
Indications are from the Institute of Chartered Accountants that IT, Sligo will be given exemptions from their Chartered Accountancy Proficiency 1 examinations.
Programme leader John Joe Gillen said “We are very excited about the launch of our new three year honours degree. Most honours degrees take four years to complete but ours is of three years duration. Because of this we need to hit the ground running and therefore students are expected to have obtained a D1 or better in higher level Leaving Certificate Accounting.
He continued: ‘ On completion of the course, students should be exempt from the Proficiency 1 examinations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI). By the time the first intake of students graduate, we hope to have a one year add-on Masters degree in place which should exempt students from the Proficiency 2 examinations of the ICAI.
Mr Gillen concluded ‘ It will be a wonderful achievement for students that after four years of study at IT Sligo, they will have a Masters degree in accounting and be in a position to sit the final admitting examinations of the ICAI”.
Caroline McNulty, lecturer in Accounting at Institute of Technology, Sligo, suggested that “Students should not be disheartened if they do not obtain the D1 in higher level Leaving Certificate Accounting. Students without leaving certificate accounting can apply for the Higher Certificate in Accounting and after completing the two year certificate course, they can transfer into year two of the BA (Hons) in Accounting. The result is that if a student has not got Leaving Certificate accounting or a sufficiently high grade in it, that student will take four years to complete the honours degree in accounting instead of the normal three years”.
Keith McManus, Head of Department of Information Systems at IT Sligo highlighted the fact that the National Skills Bulletin 2008 identified Accounting as an area of current and future skills shortage.
Representatives of the four professional accountancy bodies (ICAI, ACCA, CIMA and CPA) delivered presentations on ‘Careers in Accounting’ at the annual careers fair at IT Sligo. The presentation coincided with the launch of a new BA (Hons) in Accounting at IT Sligo.
Left to right: John Joe Gillen (IT Sligo), Ciara Murphy (CPA), Kate O’Mahony (CIMA), Caroline McNulty (IT Sligo), Catherine Moore (ACCA), Caroline Bolster (ICAI) and Keith McManus (Head of Department, IT Sligo) at the launch of the new three year BA (Hons) in Accounting at IT Sligo.
For further information contact:
Caroline McNulty,
Lecturer in Accounting:
Email: mcnulty.caroline@nullitsligo.ie
Phone: 0719155227