PricewaterhouseCoopers’ candidates again successful in accountants’ exam

  • 5 out of the top 10 candidates
  • 308 successful candidates
  • 109 new black chartered accountants

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is proud of the results its candidates achieved in the November 2008 Public Practice Examination (PPE), one of the requirements for qualifying as a chartered accountant. The PPE, set by the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (IRBA), assesses the competence of candidates at entry point to the auditing profession after a period of multi-disciplinary training.

The firm has 308 successful candidates. “We have five candidates in the top ten this year, including the number one candidate, who was the only candidate in the country to pass with honours. This is an achievement of which we are extremely proud,” says Suresh Kana, CEO Elect and head of the firm’s Assurance practice. Given South Africa’s shortage of professionals qualified in the field of accountancy we are proud to be playing a leading role in skills development in this country”.

109 of our successful candidates are black, again complementing the award PwC received in 2006 from the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants in South Africa (ABASA) for developing the most black chartered accountants in South Africa over the preceding five-year period. This brings to 597 the number of black chartered accountants qualified by PwC over the past six years.

PwC attributes the firm’s success to trainee accountants receiving top quality training throughout their traineeship period. Nitasha Manik, National Human Capital Leader at PwC says, “We take the training and development of our people very seriously – after all, our differentiator in the marketplace lies in the fact that it is our people that deliver the brand and we need and expect a client’s experience with them to be of a high standard. Further to our investment in training, we support our candidates by providing adequate study leave, financial assistance and exposure to top tier clients”.

“We are very fortunate in that many of our staff enjoy the stimulating environment offered by PwC throughout South Africa, and stay on to become managers, some reaching director level. This has again been evidenced by the fact that in the latest Magnet Survey, students across South Africa rate PwC as an ideal employer,” concludes Nitasha.