CA Sri Lanka unveils innovative executive & postgraduate diploma for executives

In remaining relevant amidst increasing challenges in the corporate world, the Business School of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) unveiled it’s newly revamped Executive Diploma in Accounting, Business & Strategy, and the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Finance & Strategy. The two programmes which takes on a progressive learning methodology, aims to develop junior and senior executives, helping them progress towards leadership positions in an effort to transform, and sustain successful organisations in Sri Lanka and overseas. The Executive Diploma has been identified as an ideal programme for ambitious young executives who aspire to progress in the field of business studies. The programme provides a foundation in the core areas of accounting, business and strategy, helping young corporate executives take on business challenges, while also making informed decisions at mid management level. The Postgraduate Diploma has been developed to equip senior executives with the necessary advanced knowledge to be successful managers and leaders. The programme enhances the knowledge, skills and competencies of executives in key functional areas of management, which allows them to apply their knowledge to drive their organisations toward greater growth. President of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Lasantha Wickremasinghe said that it is important to remain progressive in today’s exceedingly complex and fast changing world, where not only students but even professionals have to keep abreast of the constantly changing trends to remain relevant. He said that offering the best of recognized qualifications pertinent to today’s business world remains on the highest agenda of the institute, and hence steps have been taken to revamp the Postgraduate Diploma and Executive Diploma programmes and re-introduce them with a relevant and innovative curriculum for the progression of the country’s professionals. “The ultimate aim of this new revised syllabus is to produce a unique breed of professionals who will give leadership to businesses, ensuring their success and sustenance on the long run,” Mr. Wickremasinghe said. He said that as much as a country needed to progress, so does a profession and its professionals. “Hence timely curriculum changes are required to keep up with market changes and needs,” he added. Professor Danture Wickramasinghe, Chair in Management Accounting of the University of Glasgow, UK, who developed the syllabus for both programmes said that it is important to discern that every business firm today confronts mounting complexities involving competition, risk, and accountability. “This leads executives to think about how everyday decisions can be made in the light of a right strategy. A clear understanding of accounting and financial principles and practices is essential to achieve strategically oriented executive action. Such knowledge is needed to solve the complicated, often wicked problems, which with managers are faced. Keeping this in mind, CA Sri Lanka has launches two diplomas: EDABS and PGDBFS,” he said. In developing the Executive Diploma, Professor Wickramasinghe has ensured that the programme innovatively focuses on how businesses can produce high performance and sustain competitive advantage through the wisdom of accounting, finance, and strategy. “The new programme is designed to train and educate corporate executives and business entrepreneurs about how value is created, measured, and continuously improved through accounting, finance, and strategic principles and best practices. Such an approach is essential to achieve the strategic goals of businesses, as the managers must deal with emerging issues in competition, risk, governance, and accountability in the global context,” he said. With corporate managers having to make decisions strategically in dealing with various complexities, the wisdom of accounting and finance plays a pivotal role in helping the manager to seek the right strategy and take the right executive action. The Postgraduate Diploma teaches how to respond to this strategic need. “The programme is designed to produce diligent corporate executives who can maximize the value proposition of businesses with a critical understanding of accounting, finance, and strategic issues and their contemporary advancements, both in theory and in practice. The programme also aims to make the students to ready to pursue an MBA or suitable advanced Master’s degree in an area of accounting, finance, and management at an internationally reputed university,” Prof. Wickramasinghe said. (Media Release)