The Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW) has announced the launch of 120 fully-funded scholarships - 40 each in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi - for full-time members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in India (ICAI) to undertake an advanced professional skill development course.

"The select scholarship-holders will undertake the 16-day part-time training spread over a period of four months between July and October, to appear in two exams in November and another one in July next year. Completion of the course and exams will lead to a full membership of the ICAEW, which is a global accounting alliance of CA bodies from seven countries," said Vandana Saxena Poria, chief executive officer of Get Through Guides (GTG), which is the only accredited training partner of the ICAEW and the ICAI. "The scholarships, each valued at Rs 1.50 lakh, come as part of a memorandum of understanding signed between ICAI and ICAEW in 2008 for mutual recognition and enhancement of professional skills and competencies," said Dilip Apte, regional council member of the ICAI's western regional council and general manager of corporate relations at HDFC.

Addressing a news conference, Poria said, "We have already admitted 60 CA professional employees nominated by the ICAEW's anchor partners and corporate associates in India and the scholarship now opens for individual CA practitioners. The idea is to add value to the know-how that professional CAs have, by making them familiar with the changing business dynamics at the global level and teaching them to assimilate information and arrive at decisions that make businesses succeed."

Poria said, "It has long been known that ICAI is technically one of the most challenging chartered qualifications globally. ICAEW's strength is that in the final level, candidates are expected to sort through data, taking unstructured information and come up with recommendations for solving business problems."

She said, "Ideally the applicants for the course are expected to be less than 35 years or those who have passed CA in the first attempt at the final stage. They also need to answer two questions about why they want to do the programme, which should bring out leadership qualities and good management skills.

While information about enrolment process has been posted on GTG website: www.GetThroughGuides.co.in/ICAEWABOUT ICAEW, the applications close on July 5.