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Address by ISCA President Dr Gerard Ee at Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony at Singapore University of Social Sciences on 11 January 2018

Professor Cheong Hee Kiat
President of Singapore University of Social Sciences,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

We are living in exponential times. Like other professions, accountancy must transform itself to stay relevant to changing market needs. As the national accountancy body, ISCA is working to prepare the profession for the future economy, by equipping our members with future-ready skills. As identified by the Skills Future Skills Framework in Accountancy, data analytics is one of the in-demand skill sets and will continue to be so as the accountancy sector evolves.    

We are therefore pleased to partner with the Singapore University of Social Sciences to offer the ISCA-SUSS Business Analytics Certification Programme. The programme is in line with our goal to offer specialisation pathways for our members to deepen their expertise in areas that are in demand. With the programme, we aim to enable accountants to broaden their technical competency, providing them with the opportunity to obtain either of two certificates.

The ISCA-SUSS Certificate in Business Analytics equips course participants with the fundamental concepts and applications of: data mining and statistics, predictive modelling techniques in statistics, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The ISCA-SUSS Specialist Certificate in Business Analytics provides in-depth skills and knowledge in topics such as data visualisation, business forecasting, business analytics applications and data-mining models. Catering to the schedules of working professionals, course participants will have the flexibility to complete the courses at their own pace, by module or certificate.  

Course participants will acquire practical skills which can be applied directly at work, in areas such as customer relationship management and estimation of demand. They will learn to utilise insights gained through data mining, predictive modelling and business forecasting in data-driven decision-making analysis. Throughout the course, they will gain hands-on experience at performing business analytics using business intelligence software such as Tableau. Upon the completion of the programme, those who wish to deepen their knowledge and pursue the Bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics from SUSS will be granted module exemptions.

Conclusion

It is a fact that change is the only constant, but the speed of change in today’s world demands that each and every one of us be lifelong students. As futurist and philosopher Alvin Toffler once wrote: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

We hope this collaboration with SUSS will kickstart our members’ learning journey into the exciting world of data analytics.

Thank you.