TYMBA, a Global Professional Accountancy Centre of Excellence, has made it their mission to not only find new talent but also provide them with the studying opportunity of a lifetime. Part of this endeavour includes their National Accounting Quiz Challenge (NAQC). The intention of the quiz is to provide Form 4 and Form 5 students — with a focus on Bumiputera students — the chance to show off their accounting-related
knowledge and skills as well as stand a chance to win exclusive accounting scholarship opportunities.
The NAQC is especially necessary considering the shortage in professional accountants locally due to mounting regulatory pressures and recruitment issues. Aligned with the MADANI Economy’s objective of propelling the nation towards high-income status, this initiative plays a crucial role in achieving the target of 60,000 Chartered Accountants by 2030 as the Malaysian economy’s demands a greater number of chartered accountants to fortify and guide businesses
towards a sustainable economic future.
Therefore, since 2021, TYMBA has used NAQC to reach out to hundreds of teenagers and inspire more young people to pursue accounting as a career. For one, in the NAQC 22/23 series, 12 winners from the Top 100 were chosen to receive scholarships from Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputera (Yayasan Peneraju) and the Malaysia Professional Accountancy Centre (MyPAC). Each scholarship was valued at RM150,000, culminating in a total accumulated value of RM1.8 million and spurring them into the beginnings of their accounting professions smoothly.
The quiz challenge requires the participants to answer 40 multiple-choice accounting questions within 1 hour as accurately as possible. The SPM-level questions will also include a few Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) & the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) written High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) questions to better gauge the participants’ inclinations towards professional accountancy skills. After the quiz round, the participants will also participate in a sharing session guided by accounting organisations including ACCA and ICAEW.
The contestants will be competing for spots in the top 10, who will win prizes including the ‘Accounts for SPM’ book by notable accounting tutor Omar Faayiz, multiple National Level certificates, and also conditional scholarship offers worth RM150,000 for collaborative accounting programmes with TYMBA and their scholarship providers, MyPAC and Yayasan Peneraju. Furthermore, the top 3 will also receive a cash prize up to RM500 in addition to the aforementioned prizes.
“There is plenty of accounting talent in Malaysia, we just have to provide a clearer path,” says Airil Razali, founder of TYMBA Education Group. “This challenge was created to cultivate the next generation of accountancy graduates from the incoming cohort of 3,500 participants. We are all eagerly anticipating giving these bright young minds the best chance of tangible progress in their path to a successful career in accounting.”
In previous years, the quiz took place completely online; however, due to the influx of new participants, this will be the first year to feature a brand new element: a second, in-person quiz round featuring the top 100 challengers from each form group with 10 multiple-choice questions and 1 multi-task question.
The first round of the NAQC will be taking place on the 9th of December 2023, with the second in-person round happening on the 16th and 17th of December 2023 at TYMBA City Campus in Menara Liberty.
