Romania events
January 2009, Cluj and Iasi
Special exam centres
While there are more than 3500 ACCA students in Romania, we only had one examination centre in the capital of the country so in January 2009 the decision was taken to open two special exam centres in other important cities of Romania that have seen a good increase in students’ numbers and have the potential to see an even bigger increase – Iasi and Cluj. Both cities have British Council offices and it is with them that the special centres will be organized, so that there will be no doubt on the market that the quality of the ACCA exams will stay the same. The centres will be available to students for exam sitting from June 2009 session and given their strategic location will cover the whole centre of Romania and the north-east part as well.
15 January 2009, Bucharest
ACCA-ATC event
On 15th of January ACCA Romania organised the first event of the year 2009 and the first organised in cooperation with ATC-International. This was an event dedicated to students, to help them concentrate their mind back to exams.
The evening event, attended by almost 80 students, was a mix of ACCA news, exam techniques and a technical presentation made by an ATC-International senior tutor, on Leasing under IFRS - a part of the paper F7 (INT) syllabus. For pictures from the event click here.
16 January 2009, Cluj
FCCA addresses the auditors in Cluj
The Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania organises regular training seminars for its members. These seminars are organised in the main regions of Romania and try to attract the best professionals in the accountancy and audit area. ACCA is regularly invited to speak during these seminars. On 16th of January, in Cluj ACCA was represented at the CAFR regional seminar by Tom Delaney, FCCA and General Manager Delaney Executive. Tom largely based his presentation on the ACCA study regarding the credit crunch. For a few pictures from the event please click here.
18 February 2009, Bucharest
ICFE event
ACCA in cooperation with Cambridge ESOL and Cambridge University Press and British Council organised a unique event bringing together English language trainers, accountancy and finance tutors and employers with English language training needs for their staff to find out more about the International Certificate in Financial English (Cambridge ICFE) and Cambridge Financial English learning programme.
Cambridge ICFE is a unique financial English exam which helps ambitious individuals demonstrate their skills and suitability for a career in international business and finance.
Cambridge Financial English is a mix of online self-study and face-to-face learning, designed to be facilitated by a teacher, tutor or mentor. It comprehensively develops ability across the four skill areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
During this interactive session attendants found out how the programme develops, and how the exam assesses the financial English skills of students and professionals.
26 February 2009, Bucharest
Deloitte and BPP event Business Risk
ACCA Romania organised its second CPD event of the year in cooperation with Deloitte and BPP that also kindly agreed to host the event in their headquarters. The half-day morning event was focused on “Business risks” – the main presentations were “Business Continuity Management”, “Anti Money Laundering / Counter Terrorism Financing System in Romania”.
All ACCA members and students in Romania were invited and more than 70 people attended. Some pictures from the event can be found here.
A follow-up study performed on 30% of the attendants revealed that 85% of them believed the topic was relevant and well addressed by speakers. The representatives of the Public Affairs and Media Relations Department of ACCA also attended the event and after the seminar they organised a meeting with all marketing and media relations representatives of big ACCA employers in Romania in order to search for convenient ways to promote the accountancy profession in the Romanian media.
28 February, 21 March 2009
ACCA was represented by members in the regional seminars organised by the Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania
ACCA has a long lasting and solid cooperation with the Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania ever since 2003 – the two associations can always count on mutual representation at events and support in the general development of the profession.
Faithful to its mission to develop the highest quality services and offer the best events to financial auditors of Romania, CAFR organised in the period of 2008-2009 a series of professional development events with the topic “Approaches of Financial Audit” – there were 7 events organised all over the country and ACCA was represented by a speaker in 5 of them. The last two in Timisoara and Iasi were attended by ACCA members Tom Delaney, Delaney Executive and Smaranda Streanga, Training Services Director BDO Conti Audit.
The seminar in Iasi, attended by Smaranda was the last one with this topic and it was attended by approximately 100 professionals. The topics presented by ACCA in these seminars revolved around professionalism and ethics, correlated with the global economic context.
Following the meeting Smaranda said “ACCA is trying through its’ vast technical and human resources to contribute together with national professional associations to the development of the accounting and audit profession in all the countries where ACCA members are to be found. Romania is no exception and we are glad to work closely with both national associations and to have the support of the companies investing in the professional development of their staff. We can say that together we invest in Romania’s future, by working for the public interest. BDO is such an employer, making a long term investment in their staff. We are honoured by the invites that CAFR has addressed us and I am sure that these events will become a continuous presence in the seminars’ landscape in Romania”.
Pictures from the last CAFR seminar with the topic “Approaches to Financial Audit”
March 2009
ACCA has sponsored initiatives of the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) students’ Association and Leaders’ NGO
ACCA works closely with students’ associations and NGO’s to enhance the awareness on accountancy best practices and availability of international accounting qualifications that can be very easily obtained locally.
ACCA was main partner in the Practical Accounting Day event organised by the Accounting Student’s Association of ASE – this is an initiative focused on internship whereby close to 100 students in the final years were selected to spend one week in big ACCA employing companies to see how the company works and get trained on various technical issues. Cristina Gutu, ACCA and Senior Training Consultant with BPP Romania attended the opening of the event on behalf of ACCA and presented our qualifications and activities in Romania. Pictures can be viewed here.
ACCA also supported the program Oratorica initiated by the same students’ association. The program included a series of seminars that taught business best practices, from how to talk in public and negotiate to how to behave at your work place. The speakers were all high-level managers from local companies or famous actors in Romania.
ACCA was also a partner in a seminar attended by more than 200 professionals organised by an NGO (Leaders) that had as main task developing the leadership potential in young ambitious professionals. The seminar titled “Transform your clients into followers” was attended by close to 15 ACCA members and students.
6 March
CPD event in cooperation with ATCI
The 22nd ACCA CPD event in Romania had as topic "Financial Instruments - An Overview" and it was organised in cooperation with ATC International who have provided one of their tutors as speaker and also co-hosted the event. This joint event was organised as an evening event on Friday and close to 100 members and students attended.
The event was led by Mr. Phil Bradbury, ACMA, ATC International and Ronnnie Smith, ATC International's Director of Special Projects.
12, 14 – 15 March 2009, Bucharest
17 March, Iasi
19 March, Timisoara
ACCA Romania attended 4 education fairs in March throughout Romania
The month of March, with the wakening of spring is the month where students and professionals look for the best alternative of study. This is why most of the education fairs organised in Romania are organised around this month. ACCA Romania attended four of these – one of them targeted to MBA seekers and the other three to undergraduate university students and high school students.
The dates attended are: 12 March – RIMME, 14-15 March RIUF Bucharest, 17 March Iasi, 19 March Timisioara. Pictures from the ACCA stand
16 March 2009
ACCA Romania met with all HR / Training representatives
ACCA has close connections with companies that hire ACCA students and members in order to try and provide the best level of service to them. For as long as the local office has been open, it has worked together on ACCA related issues. On Monday, 16th of March, a meeting was organised with all HR / training representatives of these companies in order to share views related to ACCA. Especially in the current global economic context it is important to stress the importance of a good HR and training function within companies and the informal meeting helped in pooling together a couple of ideas, at least in what finance professionals development is concerned.
18 March 2009
IFRS – A summary of the current situation
ACCA Romania organised its’ 23rd CPD event with the support from a colleague in ACCA Ireland - Aidan Clifford (FCCA, FCA, DipIFR). He works full time for ACCA in Ireland as Advisory Services Manager, providing advice to accountants on technical auditing, accounting, ethical and investment business issues. He also lectures extensively for ACCA on auditing and accounting to qualified members and students both in Ireland and overseas.
The presentations were comprised of summary reviews of IFRS’s from IAS 1 to 41 and IFRS 1 to 8 including relevant interpretations: review of proposals for change and US GAAP harmonization, IFRS for Private Entities (previously IFRS for SME), a review of the proposals, lessons from the application of IFRS in Ireland and the UK and Europe and sources of information - the text of the standards, summaries and resources. Insurance and banking specific accounting standards were covered in very summary detail only. Close to 90 members and students attended the event.
7 May 2009, Bucharest
Management & Leadership event
With the support of speakers from a recruitment company and a company providing consultancy for company restructuring, ACCA Romania organised its 24th CPD event in Bucharest.
The topic of “Management & Leadership” attracted more than 50 attendants, ACCA members and students. The approach of the seminar was a very practical one, the attendants being prompted to think during business games what is the value added of teamwork in the current economic context and what true leaders should act like.
The pictures from the event can be accessed here
18 May 2009, Bucharest
Event for University students in cooperation with BDO and Junior Achievement Romania
ACCA in cooperation with BDO and Junior Achievment Romania organised on 18th of May, a training for the student of the Romanian-American University in Bucharest with the topic "Fraudulent financial statements”.
This half-day course comprised presentations of types of frauds in financial reporting and many examples from the important frauds of the last decades. The event was interactive in that students worked in teams that had to discover fraud made by the management of a company. Also, attendants who were students of Accounting Universities had a chance to apply the theoretical knowledge they acquired on financial statements in a separate practical exercise where they worked with real financial statements.
The first three teams to solve the fraud cause presented in the workshop received prizes from the organizers and all of the attendants gained practical knowledge on financial statements and on how to obtain an international business qualification - ACCA. More than 40 students attended the event which was led by Smaranda Streanga, Training Services Director of BDO Conti Audit. The pictures from the event can be accessed here.
27 May 2009, Bucharest
ACCA-BDO organised the technical event "Financial Audit during the Economic Crisis"
ACCA organised the twenty-fifth CPD Event in Romania with the topic "Financial Audit during the Economic Crisis". This was the third event organised in cooperation with BDO Romania.
The half-day course comprised presentations on risk areas in the current economic context for a company in general and for the financial auditor in particular and on the type of audit opinions given by auditors of listed companies in the first quarter of 2009. The event was led by Smaranda Streanga, Training Services Director and Razvan Golopenta, Audit Manager, BDO Conti Audit.
“These joint activities undertaken by ACCA and BDO are part of a series of CSR events that benefit all those involved – first of all the attendants that have the chance to improve and update their knowledge - then it’s the professional community that will have better trained professional accountants and auditors” said Smaranda Ştreangă, Training Services Director BDO.
June 2009
Local Romanian variant F6 (ROM)
Starting June 2009 students have the option of sitting the F6 Taxation paper in Romanian variant. We have already published the syllabus and study guide for this paper. This new paper proves ACCA’s commitment to the Romanian market and to the development and benefit of students and companies.
24 June 2009
“Updates on Employment & Company Law and Commercial and Consumer Contracts” Buzescu law company
For the 27th CPD event, ACCA Romania partnered with the legal cabinet of Petru Buzescu, a reputed lawyer. The topics covered in the event were: Employment Law Update, Commercial and Consumer Contracts, Company Law Update.