Experience report: Finance and accounting specialist: Course director Wilhelm Zimmermann explains how you can obtain the specialist certificate.

Wilhelm Zimmermann

Please tell us about your background.

My name is Wilhelm Zimmermann and I have a degree in economics. I worked in the private sector for almost 40 years - at times in a managerial role and mainly entrusted with strategic and project tasks. In this function, I was also repeatedly the "first" trainer in senior management. This gift made me a part-time lecturer in various specialist subjects as early as 1995. Five years ago, I immersed myself completely in adult education. In addition to teaching assignments, I have held various course management positions, including on the specialist in finance and accounting course.

Who is the Finance and Accounting Specialist course particularly suitable for?

The target group of the Finance and Accounting Specialist course includes people who are expected to independently manage and "design" bookkeeping, prepare the annual or consolidated financial statements and assess contracts with regard to the Swiss Code of Obligations. The training to become a finance and accounting specialist with a federal certificate has a modular structure. Over the course of five semesters, we prepare participants for the federally recognized professional or specialist examination. In this respect, in addition to appropriate motivation, participants must also have adequate prior education and relevant professional experience. At the time of taking the federal examination, this professional experience must amount to three years. A typical previous qualification is either a KV qualification (E-profile) with/without a vocational baccalaureate or a qualification as an accounting clerk edupool. However, we also increasingly have people with a degree from a university of applied sciences or a higher technical college.

What career prospects do you have as a finance and accounting specialist?

A holder of the specialist certificate in finance and accounting can take on a management function or a qualified clerk function in the entire field of finance and accounting. Possible areas of employment for finance and accounting specialists are

• Accounting Manager
• Commercial Manager
• Trustee

The broad recognition generally means that graduates of this course can also expect a significantly higher salary after successfully completing the accounting certificate.

What do participants learn in the specialist certificate in finance and accounting?

Those who pass the professional examination receive the federal certificate as a specialist in finance and accounting. This is a certificate that attests that the holder has the necessary knowledge and skills required of a qualified specialist in finance and accounting. Holders of the certificate are entitled to use the following legally protected title:

Specialist in finance and accounting with a federal certificate

The recommended English translation is "Chartered Specialist in Accounting and Financial Management, Federal Diploma of Higher Education".

How much does the Finance and Accounting Specialist course cost?

The Finance and Accounting Specialist course is subject-financed. This means that participants receive around half of the costs back from the federal government when they take the federal examination. Taking this federal contribution into account, the excellent further training at the KV Basel business school still costs the participant around CHF 9,000.

What makes Basel a particularly interesting training location for prospective finance and accounting specialists?

We offer a modular training program that is designed to meet the needs of all interested parties and also allows for "lateral entry". The student determines the speed of training, the duration of training and the associated costs according to previous knowledge. Our lecturers on the Finance and Accounting Specialist course are practitioners with a distinct methodological and didactic flair. A proven qualification system means that the majority of Basel students also successfully complete the federal examination (generally 85%).

We offer the Finance and Accounting Specialist course as a day and evening model (at the Basel, Münchenstein and Liestal locations). The great advantage is that students from the region of Northwestern Switzerland do not have to travel long distances to these locations, as classes take place 5 - 10 minutes' walk from the SBB train station in Basel (or Liestal).

Furthermore - and this is an important advantage for prospective finance and accounting specialists - our classes are not very large, so that the exchange between students and lecturers remains optimal.

To the "Specialist in finance and accounting (BP)" course offerings