How professional bodies can advance your career

Whether you’re an experienced leader or just starting your career, professional bodies are a powerful resource.

When you’re doing well, acknowledgement can carry you to even greater heights. Especially when the affirmation comes from the most respected practitioners in your field.

And if you’re finding things challenging, the support and skills professional bodies offer is invaluable.

For managers and accountants, the most important professional bodies are unquestionably the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Together, these bodies represent the very best accountants and managers. They uphold standards, they disseminate important skills, and they ensure that the quality of the entire profession is maintained.

That’s why University of London has official partnerships with ACCA, CMI and CIMA. Thanks to these relationships, our Global MBA students can enjoy many benefits related to these professional bodies.

One important benefit is that as a Global MBA student you’ll be eligible to gain Chartered Manager status on completion of your studies. As a Chartered Manager, you’ll emerge from the programme with an eye-catching qualification with real relevance to your organisation. Having a chartership is a proven way to improve your career prospects and make a difference to your organisation.

The benefits of chartership also translate into greater financial rewards. According to a recent Chartered Manager Institute report, chartered managers enjoy an average salary increase of over £7,000 a year. As well as better remuneration, 93% also reported greater self-awareness and 86% reported enjoying greater self-confidence: important qualities for managers.

Beyond qualifications, our relationships with ACCA, CIMA and CMI also help to ensure that our Global MBA students receive the best education possible. By working closely with these professional accreditation bodies, we ensure that our programme is closely aligned to the real challenges faced by managers, and that the skills we teach are endorsed by the foremost experts in the fields of management and accounting.

Prospective students who are already members of professional bodies can also benefit from module exemptions. For example, ACCA members can gain exemptions from up to five out of 11 modules. This means that if you’ve already begun taking your professional-level papers with ACCA, you won’t have to repeat work to obtain your Global MBA.

By offering module exemptions, the Global MBA allows students with professional body qualifications to progress through the programme faster so that they can graduate faster and use their Global MBA to start making a difference in their organisation.

For a full list of module exemptions, read more about how we can provide recognition and accreditation of prior learning.

Ultimately, professional bodies like ACCA, CIMA and CMI are vital elements of the industry. Regardless of your ambitions, it’s a great idea to get involved with them as early as possible. Their guidance, support and expertise can help you to gain valuable experience and advance your career faster - especially when combined with an MBA.

Equipped with both the elite-level understanding of business from the Global MBA, and the guidance of these professional bodies, you’ll give yourself the best possible chance of career success.

In the words of Ann Francke, CEO of CMI:

When students graduate with a Level 7 Strategic Qualification in Management from CMI as well as a very prestigious University of London Global MBA, they are truly boosting their employability by presenting employers with exactly the skills they seek.

Find out more about applying to study on the Global MBA.