Ambition is a force that drives us all. But in today’s competitive working environment, with the current global recession, ambition alone is not enough to ensure success in working life. Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) has initiated a student conference with ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) to take the learning and training one step further, to be “ferociously ambitious.”

This year’s ACCA-TARC Student Conference was held with the goal of educating young aspiring accountants about the ACCA qualification and also to inspire a fiery ‘Ferocious Ambition’ within them. Altogether, 208 students from the Diploma in Business Studies (Accounting), Year 2 participated in the event which took place at the MBS Recreation Centre in Rawang.

Aiming to provide the students with insights into the practical working life and on the importance of cultivating an ambitious spirit, the two-day conference featured numerous activities, including a forum with a panel consisting of bigwigs from the industry such as, Mr Mok Wan Kong, an audit partner from KPMG, Mr Bob Kee, an Executive Director of Tax from KPMG, Dr Ng Boon Beng, the Financial Controller of Oracle and Ms Jennifer Lopez, the Acting Head of ACCA Malaysia who shared their viewpoints on accounting as a profession.

“ACCA is pleased to partner with TAR College in this initiative. The discussion forum and team building-activities embedded within the conference have successfully shifted the students’ perspectives that accountants today are no longer back room bean counters but accountants for business, who play key roles in the sustainability and success of an organization, said Ms Jennifer Lopez, Acting Country Head for ACCA Malaysia.

She added that through this initiative, ACCA and TAR College bring the world of business alive for students and provide them an invaluable head start for their future.

Joshua Joseph Jeyaraj, a second year Advanced Diploma in Commerce (Financial Accounting) student, said that it was certainly enlightening listening to the speakers of the forum talk about real-life job experiences.

“I enjoyed the team-building game as we had to build a house out of items which we purchased with a specific amount of money allocated to us. We had to work within our budget in order to succeed. The game was truly an application of what we had learnt in our accounting studies,” he enthused.

The College continues to enjoy a strategic partnership with the ACCA since its inception in 1971. TARC is also a Gold Approved Learning Partner and is the only institution outside the UK and Ireland to be accorded the special privilege to run the ACCA Internally Assessed programme. ACCA’s acknowledgement of their exemption accredited programmes allow students the fastest route to ACCA membership.