New Syllabus
I find that the ICWAI has revamped its syllabus – making three years practical training compulsory for students. This change was made in 2008.
Previously, CWA was a theoretical correspondence course which often working people who were already in service would do.
Also since the students did not have any practical exposure – the enthusiasm for the course as well as its brand value was only a second to that of CA. (The course itself was tough and few passed – but that is another issue)
Due to this – some years back it was even contemplated to do away with the CWA institute and merge everyone into CA profession.
Perhaps those were the abysmal days for ICWAI – and now it has really come up to its own.
Powerful Lobby of CWAs
It goes without saying that most of the cost accountants (CWAs) are in the industry occupying important positions whether in Government or Private companies.
And I have seen that these CWAs being Finance Directors in big companies being invited as Chief Guests in functions organised by Chartered Accountants! Its just a part of the system of lobbying that happens in the practical world.
Three Year training for Students
The training of three years which the CWA student would take in such organisation would put him way ahead of his counterparts in CA or MBA – particularly for a career in industry.
Moreover with impending changes in Companies Act – it contemplates that every company should have a Chief Accounts Officer and the qualification contemplated is CA or CWA. Given this situation a career with CWA seems much promising having better option than other competing accountancy / finance courses.
Also the CWA students would be joining industrial training from day 1 – would get better stipend -and get groomed in the organisation – an aspect which very few CA students get exposure of.
This thing has started to materialise as many organisation – including government organisations – have started advertising for CWA Trainees. Even the list of organisations registered for CWA training is simply stupendous.
Exemption from CWA Training
In addition to this in CWA, one can get exemption from training equivalent to work experience if one is working in specified areas in specified organisations (eg working in accountancy / tax related field in any Company / NGO / BPO / Govt / Bank etc) – simply meaning one can get the ‘job experience’ and the CWA degree together
Link to ICWAI Student FAQ: http://www.icwai.org/icwainew/docs/FAQ/Training_FAQ.pdf
Good Study Material
Another good thing about ICWAI that I have seen is there study material which is far better in presentation and quality of content than that provided by ICAI. This makes understanding of the subject a more enjoyable journey.
Better Stipend for CWA students
Another indicator that ICWAI is really serious in upgrading its image and the CWA professional course is the prescribed stipend. For example for CA articleship the minimum stipend in the first year of training is Rs. 500 / 750 / 1000 depending on in which city the training is being undertaken – and it increases by Rs 250 per year. In contrast the CWA articleship training prescribes minimum of Rs. 3000 / 3500 / 4000 per month for first year of training in an organisation ! Though under a practicing Cost Accountant the stipend is 1000 / 1250 / 1500 for the first year. Definitely – CWA is a course of industry – and very least for the practice.
ICWAI Website
All information can be had from the website of ICWAI : ICWAI.org
Brand
However despite of all these – currently – the CA as a brand is definitely far ahead than the CWA. CAs with their core expertise in audit and its recognition under various regulations of Government – like Company Act, Income Tax Act, SEBI, IRDA, RBI, State VAT etc regulations have a monopoly over statutory audit and various other kinds of audit / certification – which CWAs don’t have. Practicing CWAs audit work only relates to Cost Audit that is specified in the Companies Act and Central Excise legislation. However, even in Central Excise area of Cost Audit, as per Budget 2009, the Chartered Accountants have been given an equal footing to that of CWAs.
Who cares for Brand?
It is areas like employment / consultancy / tax representation etc. which are shared areas – where various qualifications fit in like CA / CS / CWA / LLB / MBA / etc. And it is in areas of employment – that it is the quality of student that matters. And in such situation, definitely the CWA student would be at a far better advantageous position compared to the CA student.
hello everyone dont know who will answer my little confussing question.My question is i am b.com graduate from delhi university(2009).I have 3 to 4 yrs experience in BPO industry as customer service now i am compleltely fed up this is not let me going to another field and my future seemed to be dark.one of my friend suggested me to do ICWA. will anyone please tell is this right decision doing icwa no matter what time it takes 3yr or 4yr. I have no experience related to this.I am just like simple b.com graduate……i will glad pls do answer ….
thanks
As you have experience in unrelated field, you wont get exemption from CWA training. You can join specified company for the three year training & also keep passing the different steps of CWA concurrently.
http://students.icwai.org/Training/students-org.asp
Hi Anup Sir,
Please guide me.
I’m 27 year old, did a huge mistake 5 years ago by preferring to a full time MBA from ICFAI,Dehradun over my C.A due to peer pressure.
I’m working in a reputed BPO company and have around 5 years of experience.
1) Which is the ideal course for me provided I cannot leave my present job? I’ve shortlisted CMA & CS.
2) Is it too late?
3) Will I be able to move from my present sector?
Hoping your answers will sooth my mind.
Thanking you for your noble cause.
Sudeep
1) Depending on your domain of work, CMA requires 3 yrs training & CS requires 15 months training (apart from others short duration training). These long duration training in both of them can be set off with related work experience. CS is more legal oriented, CMA is more accounting /mathematical oriented.
2) No
3) definitely yes.
Anup Sir- Thanks in ton for your advise.
I go for CMA as I will be able to claim exemptions in the training.
I want your valuable inputs regarding my dilemmas for the course-
1) I cannot link any of my profile to Management Accounting or any other allied areas. Wouldn’t it be like a dummy CA articleship?
2) As per your reply CMA thrust in Mathematics but this subject had been pain throughout my student career though I love and enjoy Accountancy. If still CMA remains my ideal choice.
3) Also what is the scope of ‘CMA in practice’? My question is if an average CMA can earn his bread and butter with practice not being too over-ambitious.
I need the much awaited guidance from you.
I must reiterate you are really doing good to students, when I was doing my B.Com there was no such advice available.
Regards,
Sudeep
For the first two, read my previous reply: http://indiapoint.net/finance/2009/04/21/cwa-a-better-career-option/comment-page-5/#comment-7481
‘CMA in practice’ is a difficult question. I have seen CMA s with no work – even doing CA and later on practicing as CA – while at the same time, I have seen CMA s with tons of work in practice
Once I met a young CMA who had gone for representing his client (a big national level steel plant) – to Jt Comm (Central Excise) – and he had 16 cases with him to argue that day !!!
As such the lobby of CMAs are working quite good. Recently, there is a proposal with govt that Tax Audit, which is currently a preserve exclusively of CA s should also be opened up for CS and CMA.
Anup Sir- Thanks in ton for such a vivid description.
However my dilemmas are (which needs your attention)
1) I can go for CMA and claim exemptions in training (as I am working in a financial process)but I cannot link any of my profile to Management Accountancy.Wouldn’t be like a dummy articleship?
2) I always had a nightmare of Mathematics but loved Accountancy because of which I ignored P-1 and enrolled for P-2 in CA and was able to clear the 2nd group.
Please advise if CMA is suitable for me.
When you are doing things as per ICAI (Institute of COST Accountants of India), then there is no question of ‘like dummy’ And anyway, if you take up a course like CMA, that itself means that you want to make a shift.
If you see the syllabus of CA and CMA, they are mostly same. Only the emphasis in exams is a bit different.
In any field, effort has to be made.
Sir,
This is to inform you that I’m not getting any mail from this site.
Please reply to my questions, I am unable to verify them.
I had actually replied you in morning. However later on I found that the webhosts had shifted the servers to some newer one. So their backup didn’t contain my replies ! But I have again replied you (the replies in the morning were more detailed – but I guess, you would get the idea from what I have replied now)
Thank You Sir for your professional suggestion and really sorry for the inconvenience.
Once I complete my CMA I’ll be back with questions.
Regards,
Sudeep Acharya
HI,
I have done B.e (ECE) and working as a quality analyst in an IT company for the past 2 years.. and i want to change my career path towards CWA. . will i be able to do it? and if so, can I make it correspondence as I do not want my financial flow to stop .. also during placements does commerce students with ICWAI certification have an edge over non-commerce students like me??
Also can you please give me the rough salary ranges for ICWAI final – freshers?
Thanks in advance
Request – before posting comments plz read: http://indiapoint.net/simple-rules/
As to your query –
I would suggest you read http://www.icwai.org/icwainew/docs/FAQ/Training_FAQ.pdf
On page 3 they have given details of exemption. – (as per FAQ 7) that basically means, in your case, if you are not covered by FAQ 6 areas of exemption – but working in Public Ltd Co, you can get exemption upto 2 yrs & 6 months. For the additional 6 months you have to take training in related field
As to other questions CMA is correspondence course (all the ‘regulatory’ courses are correspondence)
Ability to do – why not?
As for placements, read: http://students.icwai.org/Placement/ and http://students.icwai.org/Placement/docs/Placement-Brouchure.pdf – salary range can be assumed to be reasonable !
btw, CWA is now called CMA (Cost & Management Accountant), and ICWAI is now called ICAI (Institute of Cost Accountants of India)
Hello Sir,
As adviced by you, I’m done with my registration and planning to take weekend coaching to supplement my studies and planning to sit for exams in this december.
Also I’ve got an offer from KPMG Global for their Analyst position and they assist their employees to pursue Chartered Accountancy from England & Wales and also reimburse the fees.
So please guide me if it is worth doing it.
Regards,
Sudeep Acharya
I am not aware of rules relating to http://www.icaew.com/
However, being an Analyst in KPMG Global, in my opinion would help you in your career objctives – even if you decide to do CMA.
As such in general CA from ICAEW is more cherished (& recognised) degree globally than the Indian CMA.
Thank You Sir for your valued advice.
There’s no need for articleship in ICAEW when one works with a partner company like KPMG.
but one more dimension is the MOU between ICAEW and ICAI which can make one Indian CA as well without articleship.
Though this is only my thought process and now I’m willing to take up my CMA now.
Sir, What would you suggest single group or both with full time job?
Waiting for your valuable opinion on this.
Regards,
Sudeep Acharya
“single group or both”
That really depends on time and ability.
Sir,
Can you please confirm whether CMA institute provides any online coaching or tutorial?
One of the finalist at the Institute told me so but I failed to find it in the Institute’s website.
I understand this is a bit tricky question and you may feel little angry at me but it would be a great help if you can resolve it because if I get an online coaching from the institute itself then I can pace my learning suiting to me and will also save lots of time.
Thanking you once again for your profound gratitute for students.
Regards,
Sudeep
Regards,
Sudeep Acharya
As far as I know none of these statutory institutes provide online coaching for students (they may have few specific short term courses delivered online – which are not of much use for exam purposes). However for CA exams there are few private online coaching providers. For CMA I have not heard such thing even with regards to private institutes.
(and thanks for the kind words that you keep expressing everytime regarding this website)
Hello Anup Sir,
I am again sorry to bother you.
I have posted comment and verified it but it is not showing in the site.
Please do the needful.
Websites like this and professionals like you are scarce in nature.
Thank you once again.
Sudeep Acharya