Kiezzy strives to reach her goal
Kiezzy Skeef is the first coloured woman from the BDO Durban office to complete the ITC Boot Camp.
A PINETOWN woman doing her articles at accounting firm BDO in Durban has passed Part 1 of her chartered accountancy Board exams after being the first woman from the Durban office to complete the ITC Boot Camp.
Kiezzy Skeef (24) said that she was delighted to be a step closer to her goal of becoming a Chartered Accountant (CA) and that the Boot Camp had definitely contributed to her success.
The ITC (Initial Test of Competence) Boot Camp is run by the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) which is one of the Thuthuka initiatives to help people prepare for their Part 1 Board exams. Funding for coloured candidates, including Skeef, was provided by the Bank SETA for the first time this year.
Sally Juckes, partner at Audit and Assurance at BDO in Durban, said research shows that the pass rate of those who attend Boot Camp is between 15 and 20 per cent higher than those who don’t.
“We are proud to say that, while the national pass rate for the CA Part 1 Board exam is 41 per cent, BDO’s average is 46 per cent.”
Skeef joined BDO, the world’s fifth largest auditing and accounting firm, in January last year having completed her CTA, the Hons B Compt degree accredited by SAICA, through Unisa.
“I didn’t attend any lectures, I studied on my own,” she said.
At the end of her three-year B Compt degree, she worked in a recruitment agency for a year to save the money needed to pay for her Honours and also to give her money to live on.
Earlier this year, each regional office of BDO was asked to nominate staff members to attend Boot Camp. Juckes approached Skeef to ask if she was keen to participate and her name was the only one from BDO Durban submitted to SAICA, along with others from BDO’s Gauteng and Cape Town offices.
Skeef was one of those selected by SAICA to participate in the course and the Johannesburg Boot Camp was chosen as the most suitable venue. While her tuition fees were funded by the Bank SETA, BDO Durban paid for her flights to and from Johannesburg and her living expenses.
Skeef spent an intense month studying during the day, attending lectures every night of the week and writing a test every Saturday morning. At the end of the course, in June this year, the candidates wrote the Part 1 CA Board Exam.
Of the 188 people who attended the 2013 Boot Camps in Johannesburg and Cape Town, 114 passed the Board exam, including Skeef who was one of the candidates from BDO’s offices nationally to do so. The overall pass rate for all candidates who attended the boot camp was 62 per cent against a national average of 32 per cent which are those that did not attend any boot camp.
Skeef’s next step is to do her Auditing Professional Training exam (APT) before she can go on to take the Part 2 Board exam in November which will allow her to qualify as a CA.
Her preparation starts at the end of September with lectures at the Westville Country Club. Results will be announced at the end of February 2014 and Skeef will complete her articles in January 2015.
