The CIMA qualification is a vital attribute for success at Deloitte's financial management consultancy group. Business journalist Nigel Ash finds out more.
Justin Watson, the sponsor of Deloitte’s UK CIMA programme, has reason to be satisfied. For the last two years students of his have come first in the world in their CIMA finals and on one paper another student came fourth.
‘We get some tremendous results from our structured programme,’ says Watson, adding that at any one time there are some 80 UK Deloitte people going through the firm’s CIMA training.
The CIMA course is mandatory for all entrants to the firm’s financial management consultancy group. Watson also oversees the study of those who elect to study CIMA. The difference is that the latter group must find their own study time, while those on the mandatory path are fed into the tightly defined work/study programme which Deloitte calls ‘CIMA for finance.’
Over three years, there will be talk courses, study leave and examinations. ‘Then,’ explains Watson, ‘there is a whole bunch of extra stuff that we do in the background to prepare people for examinations, including mocks.’
The key is that although students have their demanding financial management consultancy day jobs, every effort has been made to balance these duties with their studies.
‘It is a pretty big investment on our part,’ says Watson. ‘Study leave, talk courses and examinations are baked into students’ plans, before their ever go on a client project. That means that projects have to work around the time when they are not in the office, and in those circumstances we have to backfill that work on our client projects.’
Financial management consultancy
Watson characterises the work of Deloitte’s financial management consultancy as ‘architectural. It is very much about helping senior finance people think about the future. The reason we put our own people through the CIMA programme is to give them the depth of skills in these technical aspects, which our clients require’.
Deloitte has now deployed the mandatory CIMA programme for over three years, says Watson: ‘It is completely different from the previous incarnation. Before it was the electable programme, where essentially we funded individuals to go through the process, but how they went with that was entirely up to them.’
The stellar outcomes since the change would seem to speak for themselves. ‘We now determine precisely how individuals go through their CIMA courses,’ explains Watson, ‘and we provide a lot of support. The way the programme is structured is the reason why I think we have achieved these really differentiated results.’
Watson says that he is not sure that there is much that CIMA could be doing better.
‘I think in terms of what it does well, we now have some fairly proactive account managers from a Deloitte perspective, which is always helpful for us. I think they are quite responsive to change in the marketplace and how that influences the curriculum.
‘That is very relevant to us and to some of our clients. And I think broadly that CIMA are quite good listeners. What we find is when we are providing feedback, when our clients are providing feedback, CIMA have listened to that feedback and they have acted on it, which is just what you want from a service provider.’
Watson says that Deloitte’s relationship with CIMA is likely to be enhanced, adding to the operational aspects of training and qualifying Deloitte personnel, and moving toward a more strategic arrangement.
‘In practical terms I hope that we will have a much closer relationship and we will meet on a more regular basis’, explains Watson, ‘We will get to know each other much more effectively. We will be able to provide some feedback to CIMA about qualifications and curriculum and have that taken account of in the design of the curriculum.
‘We will in turn get some feedback from them about what they are doing and we will be able to build that into our programme as well.’
From an educational standpoint, says Watson, it is very much about ensuring that the qualification reflects the changing nature of the finance organisation, and therefore the changing nature of the work that Deloitte undertakes and the things about which their clients worry.
Links
CIMA MY JOBS
The value of CIMA: Deloitte