ACCA’s qualification is enhanced with up to date skills and knowledge

The main elements of the ACCA Qualification are summarised in ACCA’s Competency Framework, which shows the qualification under ten areas of competency, from corporate reporting and taxation through to leadership and management, strategy and innovation and audit and assurance.

Through an on-going process ACCA has made a wide range of changes to qualification content which enhances competency in key areas as follows:

1. Professionalism and ethics: the syllabus content has been enhanced around governance, risk and ethics. Content relating to risk management such as risk identification, control and mitigation was recently updated and has been well received by students, members and employers.  The syllabus has now been amended to introduce a greater focus on the requirement for more diversity on boards.
2. Strategy and innovation: more areas of the paper have been made relevant to the corporate sector and business leadership in terms of forecasting, budgeting, cost management and decision support, including pricing. The latest area to be added is on the role and limitations of cost accounting in strategy development and implementation.
3. Financial Management:  ACCA has increased content on developments in Islamic Finance. Our enhanced coverage now includes developments in this form of financing in sourcing business expansion and projects, explaining the rationale for its use and identifying its benefits and deficiencies.
4. Corporate reporting: Greater coverage is included of the typical contents of a social and environmental report and the usefulness of this information to stakeholders – especially relevant in the light of new guidelines issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
5. Sustainable management accounting: ACCA’s performance management exams contain key sections which support businesses in making sustainable and efficient use of resources through strategic planning, control, measurement and performance evaluation.
6. Audit and Assurance: More emphasis on professional scepticism has been added to reflect the new IESBA (International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants) code of ethics for professional accountants.
7. Case study approach: Additionally, since June 2013, all seven of the ACCA Qualification Professional Level exams use case studies in their assessments worth at least 50 marks, with some worth 60 marks. This provides in-depth practical scenarios for students to work on for these exams, all of which are examined at Master’s degree level.