To help Professional Accountants including Chartered Accountants embrace technology, including big data, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka), in its standing as a world-class professional body, has once again taken the unique initiative to introduce the importance of data analytics among the professional community in Sri Lanka. The inaugural intake of the six-month Advanced Certificate in Data Analytics which concluded in November saw an overwhelming response, with a large number of participants registering.

The programme attracted Chartered Accountants and other Accounting and IT Professionals, as well as CA Students, who wished to utilize technology such as data to climb the ladder of success at a faster pace amidst increasing demands for tech-savvy Accountants across the corporate world. The certificate awarding ceremony of the first batch of the Advanced Certificate in Data Analytics was held recently under the patronage of the President of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Sanjaya Bandara, the Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Dulani Fernando, and the Director of Student Affairs, Ms. Lakmali Priyangika. The participants who successfully completed the course received their certificates from Mr. Bandara.

The Advanced Certificate in Data Analytics offered by CA Sri Lanka aims to provide participants with a challenging curriculum covering the most in-demand skills, tools, and technologies in data analytics that are primed for industry relevance. A key take-home of this unique course is that it will help Accountants and other professionals, as well as aspiring Accountants, acquire data analytics skills easily, thereby increasing their demand across the corporate world, not only in Sri Lanka but also all over the world. The course also opens participants to a range of new opportunities across multiple domains, apart from helping them become key decision-makers due to their newfound skills.

The second intake for the Advanced Certificate in Data Analytics is currently ongoing, and the course will commence on 14th January 2022. Despite the increasing demand for the course, CA Sri Lanka has decided to limit the batch in terms of size to ensure quality delivery of the course to all participants. The course is perfect for CFOs, Finance Managers, and Accountants, as well as Financial and Business Analysts and CXOs who require a 360-degree view of the business. The course consists of two units covering “Business Analytics” and “Advanced Analytics.”

During unit one, participants are introduced to business analysis with Excel, the ability to analyze business data in SQL, as well as data visualisation with Tableau and data analysis with Power BI. In unit two, participants are introduced to the “R” language as well as how to conduct statistical analysis with “R,” along with a focus on Python for Data Science, Machine Learning with Python, and how to conduct big data analytics with Azure Data Bricks. In an era of machine learning and artificial intelligence, data analytics has become exceedingly important in the modern world, especially for local and foreign companies as data analytics applies to all processes and resources necessary for the collection and analysis of critical data. Analytics is a wider concept that incorporates multiple data processing methods and processes. It collects and transfers valuable data from useless information and analyses it to generate numerical data and patterns that can lead to profitable improvements. In a digitally-centric world and economy, many have identified data as the new oil of the 21st century.