CA magazine: November 2020
By Sarah Speirs, ICAS Executive Director of Member Engagement and Communications
28 October 2020
During autumn, we welcomed the latest cohort of students to ICAS. As always, it has been a pleasure to greet the faces that will make up the future of the profession and become tomorrow’s leaders in both practice and industry.
At ICAS, we aim to make the journey to qualification as seamless as possible. And despite the extraordinarily challenging circumstances that 2020 has brought us all, this goal has not changed. That is why we launched our new student value proposition – “educate, empower and advance” – in September.
This new project will enhance our communications to students, refine the support that we offer, and raise awareness of what the CA qualification means. As our members know well, qualifying as a CA is a commitment not just to professionalism, but also to precision, collaboration, honesty and trust. And there was no better demonstration of the breadth of expertise and insight offered by the profession than at the CA Summit on 8 October.
The online event, the first of its kind for ICAS, may have been necessitated by the pandemic but it greatly benefited from bringing together hundreds of ICAS members from around the globe. Across the three pillars of learn, grow and inspire, we heard from thought-provoking speakers, such as David Brear, CEO of 11:FS, and Martin Gilbert CA of banking disruptor Revolut, and witnessed how financial and professional services leaders are powering the recovery and the future of business. In a crucial session, Professor
Trevor Williams also addressed the economic situation and the challenges that lie ahead for us all. And we also celebrated the achievements of the One Young CA winner.
The success of CA Summit also reflects the principal takeaway from a year that may be best remembered for its many virtual calls: that geographical distance need not be a barrier to connectivity. It’s a message we aim to share with our new students.
This issue of CA magazine is the first our newest cohort of students at ICAS will receive. We’d like to take the opportunity to wish all our students the very best with their professional journey and we look forward to supporting them throughout their careers. We hope the stories contained in these pages demonstrate the qualification’s continued reputation as a global passport to success.