Singapore Accountancy Academy

SHE was offered a place to study psychology full-time at a local university.

But she turned down the offer because she did not want to give up her full-time job at a financial services company.

Miss Venetia Teo, 21, then found an option that was a better fit as it allowed her to study part-time while continuing with her operations analyst job.

She enrolled in the Singapore Accountancy Academy (SAA), which is located at Six Raffles Quay, just across the road from her office.

The second-year student is now pursuing a part-time BSc (Hons) in Banking and Finance degree, which is awarded by the University of London (UOL). Miss Teo said juggling work and study is challenging, but fortunately, her lecturers and bosses have been understanding.

Twice a week, her day stretches from 9am to 10pm when she has to attend classes after work.

While her work day ends at 7pm, she is allowed to leave the office earlier - as long as her work is done - so she can be on time for her classes which start at 6.45pm.

Miss Teo said: "My boss is very supportive and lets me take leave to study, especially when my exams draw near, as well as on the days when I have exams."

She is also grateful to her lecturers at SAA who never fail to provide comprehensive lecture notes and easily-understood solutions to practice problems.

She explained: "We (part-time students) don't really have much time to seek out supplementary reading, such as extracts from other textbooks and newspaper articles, but our lecturers try to give us the relevant materials.

"They compiled a whole set of intensive revision notes for us, with questions and notes from different years - it's like a ten-year series."

She said her friends enrolled in similar courses in other schools have remarked that the notes from SAA are very comprehensive.

The former Ngee Ann Polytechnic student had completed the SAA bridging programme before embarking on the degree programme.

The SAA bridging programme is meant for polytechnic graduates holding business-related diplomas who intend to pursue a UOL degree.

EXEMPTION

Candidates who pass both the economics and mathematics courses in this programme will be exempted from taking fourUOL foundation units.

They then have to complete eight more units to earn the UOL degree.

Miss Lim Si Ying, 21, went through the SAA bridging programme as well.

It allowed her direct entry to the second year of the BSc (Hons) in Accountancy and Finance programme.

She said: "I did Principles of Accounts in secondary school and the subject sparked off my interest in accountancy.

"I knew that I wanted to be an accountant then".

But Miss Lim did not have her sights set on pursuing a degree initially.

The former Nanyang Polytechnic student had wanted to enter the workforce after graduating with a marketing diploma last year.

She had a change of heart when she realised that having a degree would lead to better job prospects.

She was attracted to the UOL degree offered by SAA as the latter is the training arm of the national accountancy body, Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS).

Besides the experienced lecturers who have taught the UOL programme for many years, the location of SAA's city campus also influenced Miss Lim's choice.

"Having a campus located within the CBD area makes me feel like I'm going to work instead of school," she added.

She said she is also looking forward to an internship under the Professional Attachment Scheme after her examinations.

More importantly, once she obtains her degree, Miss Lim will be able to take the ICPAS professional examination.

Upon passing the professional examination, she will be eligible for provisional membership in ICPAS, which in turn allows one to qualify as a Certified Public Accountant in Singapore with the relevant work experience and successful completion of the pre-admission course.