Can I Study ACCA or CFA?
“I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce course at the university and I am almost through. Since I don’t want to be jobless, I would like to supplement my academic qualification with a professional certification. My main problem is that I am in dilemma regarding on the best professional certification between CFA and ACCA.
Several people have recommended ACCA, arguing that it’s more friendly compared to CFA, but I am keen to listen to an expert. Please help me select the best course”
Answer
ACCA and CFA are two powerful courses that have been the most favourite of accounting and finance professionals, but one is better than the other. Depending on your area of specialization, this is our advice.
CFA is the most marketable professional certification for finance professionals. If you are specializing in finance, CFA is much better than ACCA –this is explained by the comparison of the two in terms of salaries and job offers available in the market.CFA is found to be paying at least 20 % more than ACCA.
If you are specializing in accounting, the best course to pursue is ACCA.The reason why I particularly pick ACCA is because of the direction it will point your career to. By this I mean, based on ACCA curricula, you are likely to land a job as an accountant or auditor. These jobs are ideal for those with extensive knowledge of accounting and auditing, which are areas well covered in ACCA.
But if you are an average student,CFA will be tougher for you. It’s important you take a professional course based on your abilities, and in your case ACCA would be the most ideal course .Generally,CFA is regarded as a hard nut to crack, which explains why many students opt to pursue softer courses. But out of the many soft courses available, ACCA emerges the best.
Finally, if your area of interest is stock market, financial institutions and investment banks, then go for CFA.I recommend this because it’s a hot cake professional course in the stock market industry.It has generally been proved that when a student completes CFA level 2, securing employment becomes a mandatory. It’s this reason that finance students are advised to enroll for the course and pursue CFA Level 1, before they start looking for employment.
