The global financial crisis presents both challenges and opportunities for CIMA professionals.
| Author | Lowth, Glynn |
| Position | In business |
We have recently been witnessing seismic shifts on Wall Street and the global financial markets that will affect us all to varying degrees across the 161 countries in which CIMA operates.
As governments, regulators, professional bodies, business leaders and commentators gather to find solutions to these unfolding events, it is difficult to predict the scale of change we will witness by the time you read this, let alone in the medium term. Change, however, is certainly a given.
While nothing quite like this has happened before, it is important that we, as participants in the capital markets, learn from this crisis. Chartered management accountants act in the public interest, so it's vital that we also keep our skills and professional development up to date and continue working to the highest professional standards.
As an employer-led body rooted in business, with a syllabus that is regularly reviewed to ensure that it remains at the cutting edge, CIMA will continue to promote the value of its members' professionalism and skills in particular. In this way, the qualification will remain the gold standard for employers, reassuring them that our members around the world share the same high standards.
When the going gets tough, organisations across all sectors require strong finance functions. A recent headline in the UK press illustrates the point: "Too few Whitehall staff with financial qualifications--MPs claim government is failing to ensure its staff are correctly qualified to deal with huge budget", wrote Accountancy Age last month.
While we witness significant job cuts across banking and other industries, it is important to remember that there is still a global shortage of skilled financial managers. A recent survey by recruitment consultants Robert Half International provides evidence of continued strong demand for accounting and finance professionals across the world, particularly those with industry and regulatory experience. Having a qualification with an international perspective and a total focus on business is a decisive advantage in the recruitment market.
Periods of intense...
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