Why did I chat to Nicolaas?

Nicolaas van Wyk is the CEO of SAIBA (South African Institute of Business Accountants). I wanted to chat to him to provide more insight for students about professional accounting qualification options in South Africa. 

(If you enjoyed this, want us to chat about something else, or want more of these types of chats, please leave a comment at the bottom of the post)

Take a look at the Table of Contents above to see what we chatted about. You can go straight to the topics you’re interested in

SAIBA and their qualifications

SAIBA has four different professional designations. (You can find more details here). Nicolaas gives us some background on SAIBA and their designations. 

What is the qualification process?

We discuss the academic and practical work requirements for the different SAIBA designations. 

Interestingly, although they do require a degree, SAIBA doesn’t have a requirement that you HAVE to have studied a specific degree, take a look!

Work / Life experience BEFORE you choose a specialisation

“How am I supposed to know what you want to specialise in, before I’ve had exposure to it?”

This is a valid question I get from people all the time. Choosing a career and study path is a huge commitment, which we often do straight from school. How are you supposed to know what you want? There is value in working with something and obtaining a professional designation as you’re working with it.

How do you move from the CA-path to SAIBA?

I know a lot of students who are somewhere on the CA(SA) qualification path, and for whatever reason, are looking for a different option. How would someone move to a SAIBA designation? Is their studying / work experience going to give them exemption to SAIBA requirements?

Career skills

As students are considering their qualifications, careers and lives, what skills should they be thinking of that will add value to organisations and their own careers?

BAP(SA) - Business Accountant in Practice

One of SAIBA’s designations is a BAP(SA) – Business Accountant in Practice. This is designed for people who want to start their own accounting practice. We chatted about this

Articles - Should you? Where?

Doing articles is really valuable to gain practical experience and exposure to specific competencies and work experience. This is still valuable for SAIBA qualifications. We also discussed whether Audit articles are valuable for someone who wants to become a SAIBA member, and the value of doing articles at a medium firm

How do employers perceive SAIBA?

A large component of student’s choices around their qualification options are around employment. We chatted about the profile of SAIBA members

Who does SAIBA partner with internationally?

What are SAIBA's competency assessments like?

SAIBA requires you to pass competency assessments for their designations. We chatted about what these are like.

Nicolaas mentions CFOTalks, which has interviews with various CFO’s.

What are SAIBA's CPD requirements?

Every professional qualification requires you to keep your skills and knowledge up-to-date. This means that you have to do ‘Continual Professional Development’. We discussed what SAIBA’s CPD requirements are.

What should Matriculants be thinking of?

We discussed what Nicolaas feels Matric students should be aware of, and consider as they’re looking at the beginning of the next phase of their lives.

What should someone thinking of moving off the their current qualification path?

A lot of students will consider whether they’re on the right qualification path during their journey. Some of them will stay on the same path, and some will move. We discussed what Nicolaas would like them to think of.

Last words to students on their career paths

Thanks on behalf of my students to Nicolaas for his time. 

If you’d like us to chat about anything else relating to SAIBA or the topics raised, please comment below.

If you can relate, or have a query...

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Yvonne Starkey CA(SA)

Yvonne Starkey CA(SA)

I coach accounting students who are struggling with their study habits and mindset, and want their studies to be as effective as they used to be. See more on my about page

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