The Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales, ICAEW, has announced scholarship scheme for Chartered Accountants in India to learn advanced professional skill development course. There are over 120-fully funded  scholarships 40-each for Pune, Mumbai and Delhi based Chartered Accountants.

This will help the Indian CAs to reduce the cost of the required exams.

ICAEWs scholarship scheme is supported by anchor partners Deloitte, HDFC, Genpact, Mahindra & Mahindra, Grant Thornton, KPMG, PwC and Tata. It is open to dedicated ICAI Chartered Accountants (CAs) and reduces the cost of the final two exams of ICAEWs ACA (Associate Chartered Accountant) qualification from over from  Rs 40000 to 2.5 lakh.
ICAEW and ICAI has appointed Get Through Guides (GTG), as the only accredited training partner for this scholarship programme.

According to Mark Spofforth, president ICAEW and deputy chairman of the International Accounting Education Standards Board,  CAs in India are technically far superior but accounting now is not just about technicality.

It is also about identifying and solving problems. Clients look and value those CAs who can be trusted as advisors and who understand the dynamics business. Over 50 per cent of current CEOs and CFOs of Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 UK companies trading on London stock exchange are ICAEW CAs and the same percentage are running their own companies, which demonstrates how influential the role of accountants are in the business.

Dilip Apte, regional council member of the ICAI's western regional council and general manager of corporate relations at HDFC said, "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."

Commenting on this, Vandana Poria, CEO, Get Through Guides (GTG) 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."

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.