Annual Report 2011 - The Malaysian Institute Of Certified Public ...

18President’s StatementTalent is the key ingredient. We cannot be on the road to a knowledge intensive and innovation-ledeconomy without talent to drive the industries forward. With our solid experience in education andtraining, the Institute is well placed to play a significant role in contributing to human capitaldevelopment. This is in tandem with the Government’s continued emphasis on the development ofhuman capital through improved quality of education and training infrastructure for future growth.High on our agenda this year has been a major focus on student development and to promote andraise the visibility of the revised MICPA programme.We continued to remain at the forefront to produce andnurture high caliber home grown talents - the Institute’s smartpartnership with The Institute of Chartered Accountants inAustralia (ICAA) is an important stepping stone – enablingboth Institutes to grow and support the profession across theAsian region – now and well into the future. It also representsa valuable opportunity to take the highly regarded CharteredAccountants Programme offered in Australia locally. We alsoensured that the programme was adapted to meet the localneeds in Malaysia as the Taxation module reflects Malaysiantaxation regulations in order that the learning anddevelopment provided greater relevance for careers inMalaysia. I am pleased to report that the programme isproving to be very attractive to top candidates in Malaysia withenrolments increasing significantly and local candidatesperforming above the national pass rate across the majority ofmodules.One of the major concerns is to produce, attract and retain askillful workforce and towards this end, MICPA’s education andtraining commitment is also to help young talents go furtherby extending and improving the education support so as toincrease the accessibility to the professional qualification. Asreported last year, MICPA has launched the StudentsSponsorship Programme (MICPA-SSP) jointly with approvedtraining employers – both approved accounting firms andapproved training organisations.Under the MICPA-SSP, the approved accounting firms orapproved training organisations sponsor students who areinterested to pursue 2 modules of the ASE – Taxation andFinancial Accounting & Reporting modules of the MICPAprogramme. The students will be required to work for theapproved accounting firms or approved training organisationsduring their 6-months internship as well as upon completionof their Bachelor of Accountancy degree programme for aperiod of not less than 3-years. The MICPA-SSP is aneducational experience that will help graduates build a solidfoundation of technical knowledge, skills, ethical andprofessional values to complement today’s business world.This will imbue graduates with the relevant value-add qualitiesto stay relevant and adapt to changes which may occur in theirprofessional careers. Furthermore, it adds to their competitiveadvantage in the employment market. The MICPA has alsoestablished partnerships with various accredited public andprivate universities in Malaysia to identify suitable candidatesto enroll into the MICPA-SSP.We are pleased to inform that we have a strategic partnershipwith Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd ( TalentCorp ) who hasrecently endorsed the MICPA-SSP as an approved StructuredInternship Programme (SIP). The official endorsement was heldon April 24, 2012 in conjunction with the Talent Roadmap2020, which was launched by the Prime Minister YAB Dato’ SriNajib bin Tun Abdul Razak. The Talent Roadmap 2020 isdesigned to address underlying issues affecting talentavailability in Malaysia as well as address the talent needsarising from key industries driving the national economictransformation agenda, of which accounting is one of the keycritical identified areas of the ETP.As part of the tax incentive for Budget 2012, companies thathire interns to undergo SIP endorsed by TalentCorp, is eligiblefor double tax deduction for all related expenses incurred onthe interns. The tax incentive, which took effect on January 1,2012, is aimed at generating industry awareness and increasedparticipation in the SIP, a collaborative effort betweenTalentCorp and the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE)which hopes to generate more employable graduates to fill thecurrent talent shortage in corporate Malaysia by providingindustry-relevant internships to Malaysian students in localinstitutions of higher learning.