Understanding CIMA and Why You Should Do it

Who Should Use CIMA and Why?

Both the world and the professional landscape are changing quickly. The number of possibilities available today makes choosing a career much more difficult than it ever was. Chartered Accounting used to be intimately associated with accounting and finance. But things are different now. Each course has something distinctive to give thanks to a wide variety of distinctive characteristics (such as course content, distribution strategies, market value, etc.). Among the many options accessible, CIMA is a fantastic program to think about and assess (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). You are given the CGMA (Chartered Global Management Accountant) certification upon successfully completing the course. This is regarded and acknowledged worldwide.

CIMA is a four-level course with a total of 16 exams. The certificate level is exempted for anyone with a bachelor’s degree and the real magic begins from the operational level. You’ll find plenty of information about what each subject is about and what content it entails.  

Recall your days at school. You had mathematics as a subject every year, but the difficulty level kept rising every year with the addition of new concepts. CIMA follows a very similar structure. It has three vertical pillars split into 4 horizontal levels. Each pillar is 1 key area of Business and Finance. So the core subject remains the same throughout the pillar, but the difficulty keeps increasing.  

One of the pillars is the Enterprise Pillar, where you learn about enterprise management. In the operational level, you learn about it from an operational perspective. In the management level, you learn about it from a middle management perspective. And finally in the strategic level, you learn about it from a strategic perspective.  

A similar system exists with the Performance Pillar (that talks about improving business performance through diligent management accounting) and the Finance Pillar (Which talks about finance, accounts and taxation). Imagine yourself to be an employee in a company. In your career journey, you’ll probably begin as an operational employee, where your technical skills matter the most. Then, you’ll progress on to a middle management position, wherein along with your technical skills, you must understand people management. And finally, you’ll reach a strategic position where you need to keep your technical and people skills in mind to drive the business ahead and lead the company through carefully planned strategies.

The CIMA course takes you through the various stages of this professional journey. Also, not only do you give objective exams about the subjects, you also have to give a subjective case study at every level, wherein you are given a hypothetical company with real life business challenges. You are given ample pre-reads about this company and your role/ designation in this company. In the exam, you need to solve problems on the spot using all your knowledge of each subject and the pre-read material provided to you.  

The CIMA Structure

The CIMA exams are all on demand. They are conducted at Person Vue centers which are abundantly available in major cities. Generally speaking, getting a slot for an exam is not a problem. This helps you pace the course as per your comfort and requirement. The exams are of two kinds. Objective tests and Case studies. You can take the objective test in your level in any order you like. The case study of any level can only be scheduled after you have already cleared all the objective exams of that particular level. Even the case study is conducted four times a year (February, May, August and November), with a window of 5-6 days. Hence you can choose your exam date as per your comfort. Hence, the course provides a lot of flexibility. Also, CIMA offers various exam exemptions based on your other qualifications. These can be explored as per personal requirements.

As you clear each level, you get a certificate, as is depicted in the image above. After the strategic level, you have to submit the PER. Your work experience can be both pre or post qualification. You get 4 years after clearing the SCS to submit 3 years of work experience.

Conclusion

All in all, CIMA is a very well-rounded course with caters to a lot of modern day needs that we have as professionals. It focuses not just on academics but on practicality. The institute, exams structures and guidelines are all very student friendly and are built on a strong ethical foundation. It is definitely worth taking a look at and considering if you want something out-of-the-box from your course.

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