Average monthly salary: Part-qualified CIMA students get 15% less pay

Demand for professionals restricted by economic slowdown.

KARACHI: The average monthly salary of a part-qualified student of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) decreased by almost 15% on a year-on-year basis, according to recently released CIMA Salary Survey 2013.

Pakistani professionals who have partially passed the exams of the world’s largest body of management accountants and are currently employed within Pakistan earned on average a monthly salary of Rs63,067 each, which is 14.7% down from Rs73,973 received in the previous year.

More alarming is the fact that only 44% among all Pakistani part-qualified CIMA students are satisfied with their current salary, which is lower than 58% reported in 2012 and 51% in 2011.

According to National Bank of Pakistan Assistant Vice President Tahir Sartaj, who passed CIMA in 2008 and now teaches CIMA students in different tuition centres in Karachi, the drop in compensation for part-qualified CIMA students has nothing to do with the quality of CIMA education.



“New professionals are joining the field because the qualification is getting popular in Pakistan. However, their demand is restricted mainly because of an overall slowdown in the economy. The supply-demand imbalance is resulting in a dip in their compensation level,” Sartaj told The Express Tribune.

CIMA was set up in 1919 in the United Kingdom and its members and part-qualified students are now present in all global economies. In addition to three years of practical experience, a student has to complete five exam levels, which consist of several papers, to become a CIMA member. These are called certificate, operational, management, strategic and professional competence levels.

Approximately 25,000 qualified members and just over 21,000 part-qualified students were invited to participate in the survey. It was conducted in 23 markets, with 96 part-qualified students taking part from Pakistan.

According to CIMA Pakistan representative Javaria Hassan, the drop in satisfaction levels reflects the continuing challenging economic environment as well as the high expectations that younger CIMA students have for their future salaries.

About 94% of CIMA students in Pakistan are expecting a salary increase over the next 12 months at an average rate of 14.5%, the survey revealed. If realised, in real terms this will be above the inflation forecast of 8.2%.

While 44% are anticipating a smaller than average salary increase, 28% expect a raise of 20% or more, the survey noted.

“We have observed a change in the profile of respondents between 2012 and 2013 towards younger age groups starting out in their CIMA qualifications. In 2012, 31% of students were at the operational and management levels of the qualification while 9% had less than one year of relevant work experience. In 2013, however, we observe 41% of students at the operational and management levels and 22% with less than one year of experience,” Hassan told The Express Tribune.

“As salary is strongly linked with experience, we have observed a fall in the overall average salary,” she noted.

In an interview with The Express Tribune in July, CIMA Global Executive Director Dr Noel Tagoe estimated that the Pakistani economy needs as many as 50,000 professional accountants in the short run.

Tagoe said about 600 new students from Pakistan registered for CIMA between January and June this year. He added that CIMA officials expect more than 1,500 new admissions in the current year. In contrast, about 450 new students registered for the CIMA qualification in the first six months of 2012 in the country, he said.

Currently, there are 154 CIMA qualified members and 3,073 part-qualified students registered in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2013.

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