New Financial Analytics Programme to boost the skills of new accountants

Mumbai, October 4 

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Fourthrev have collaborated to launch a global ‘Financial Analytics Programme’. The online programme is designed for integration into the curriculum of accounting and finance degrees and can also be used standalone by recently qualified accountants.

Addressing feedback from the accounting and finance industry, the programme will enable learners to develop their mind-set, communication and modern financial analytics capabilities essential for forward-thinking finance professionals in the age of big data.

Most new accountancy positions require graduates to be able to act more like business partners, who are able to question, evaluate, and interpret operational and financial information to generate insights and convey those insights appropriately to stakeholders, informed by wider industry knowledge. 

 The programme has a fundamental focus on combining ‘human’ skills with key technical capabilities and will support learners in developing:

• Critical thinking skills to ask the right questions of data to address business requirements
• Frameworks and approaches to conduct financial analytics, drawing upon datasets and their wider knowledge of the company/industry
• Technical skills with Excel and Tableau to perform analytics and develop insights and dashboards
• Methods to create compelling narratives to convey insights in slide presentation
• Best practice ways to communicate with internal and external stakeholders 
• Positive behaviours around continuous learning and taking initiative 

 The programme is taught with real-time analytical projects, which will provide students with concrete outputs that showcase their ‘human’ or soft skills at an interview setting. Learners will also gain confidence and capabilities on several leading enterprise tools and technology. The pilots will open in the first half of next year with several universities and full rollout following shortly thereafter.