Practical Training
The unique requirement of Practical Training is instrumental in shaping a well-rounded professional to ensure that students have an opportunity to acquire on-the-job work experience of a professional nature. The entire process of Practical Training is administered by the M&SS Section of the ICAI.
Practical Training is a process of growing up from a CA student to an excellent professional. It helps one to understand fine nuances of practical and professional life. Practical Training also enables students to face the examinations where application oriented questions are posed. Both theoretical and practical aspects should go hand in hand along with communication and presentation skills coupled with being technology savvy to become an extraordinary professional. Other benefits of Practical Training are...
Exposes the candidates to the dynamic and demanding world of business and helps them to balance their study and work commitments.
Helps in developing various skills like inter-personal skills (in dealing with peers, seniors, clients), initiation, objectivity, communication skills, self-management skills, etc.
Enhances understanding of different organisations, of how businesses work, and of work relationships.
Helps to relate accounting work to other business functions and activities.
Develops the appropriate professional values, ethics and attitudes in practical, real-life situations.
Helps in understanding the practical issues faced by businesses. Helps in increasing the overall business knowledge.
Provides a broad exposure to a variety of areas - accounting, taxation, auditing, finance, etc.
Helps in appreciating the problems in the examinations from a broader perspective.
Inculcates a disciplined attitude for hard work.
Develops necessary skills in applying theoretical knowledge to practical situations.
Provides exposure to overall socio-economic environment in which organisations operate.
When to Join Practical Training?
A student who has passed Group I/both Groups of IIPCC or has registered on the basis of securing prescribed percentage of marks in Graduation/Post Graduation under the Direct Entry Scheme can join three years of Practical/Articled Training on successful completion of the Orientation Programme and 100 hours Information Technology Training (ITT).
Admission and Registration of Articleship (Regulation 45)
As per Regulation 45, a Member, before engaging an articled assistant, has to satisfy himself that he is entitled to train articled assistants and that his professional practice is suitable for the purpose of training articled assistants. It is obligatory for the Member planning to engage articled students to ensure on the one hand, that professional practice is suitable for imparting such training; and on the other hand that such an articled assistant has successfully complied with eligibility conditions prescribed by the Institute. Articleship shall be executed in Forms 102 and 103. Form 102 is a Deed of Article and Form 103 contains various particulars which, along with documentary evidence of compliance with Regulation 45, is required to be sent to the Institute within 30 days of the commencement of articles.
Industrial Training (Regulation 51)
The entire period of practical training can be served either with a practicing member or partly with a practicing member and partly in an approved industrial establishment as an Industrial Trainee. The period of such industrial training may range between 9-12 months during the last year of the prescribed period of Practical Training. Only students of final Chartered Accountancy Course are eligible for industrial training. Training in an industrial/commercial/financial environment provides trainees with the opportunity to develop a problem-solving attitude and to have an insight into the functioning of the accounts department. It also diversifies their practical experience and helps them in developing the attributes of team work and correlation with members of other professions and disciplines.
Secondment (Regulation 54)
In order to expose the trainees at large to multi-disciplinary work and variety of business situations, an arrangement of secondment has been provided in the Regulation 54. The secondment enables an articled trainee to gain practical experience, in areas where the Principal may not be in a position to provide the same, in the office of another member in practice on the basis of a mutually agreed arrangement. The member to whom the trainee is seconded is not entitled to train more than two such trainees on secondment. The aggregate period of secondment cannot exceed one year. The Council may permit secondment with more than one such member provided the minimum period of secondment shall be four months. Where an articled trainee is seconded to a member in industry, the total period spent in the industry including the period of industrial training should not exceed one year. The principal is required to include particulars of the secondment in the report to the Council under Regulation 64.
Apart from the secondment of a trainee from one firm to another, or to an industry, firms may exchange trainees on mutual basis for a limited period to the advantage of firms and trainees. Such an arrangement is also quite flexible like the scheme of secondment & enables the firms to overcome deficiency, if any, in Practical Training imparted to trainees.
Part of Practical Training outside India (Regulation 54 A)
Part of the Practical Training can be undergone under eligible Members outside India. Regulation 54A contains a provision whereby a principal can depute an articled assistant not exceeding six months to any member outside India who is eligible to engage and train such trainees under the bye-laws of institution or body, etc., set up in the respective country under the relevant statutes. It may be noted that in such cases no deed of articles needs to be executed or any intimation to be sent to the Institute in this regard. Further, the principal remains responsible for submitting the Report to the Council in terms of Regulation 64. It is an excellent opportunity for articled assistants who are undergoing training in India to get exposure outside India as well. It is not necessary that an articled assistant is deputed only to a member of the Institute located in that country. In fact, an articled assistant can be deputed to any member of that country's accounting institution or body set-up under the relevant statute provided such member a is entitled to train articled assistants (by whatever name called) in that country.
Present Scales of Stipends to Articled Assistants
A person registered as an articled assistant is entitled to receive a minimum monthly stipend as per the rates specified under the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988. The current minimum rates of monthly stipend payable, depending on the situation of the normal place of service of the articled assistants
Permission to Pursue Other Courses of Study
Under Regulations 65 and 78 of the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988 an articled/audit assistant cannot take up any other course of study or training, whether academic or professional, without prior permission of the Council. Such permission may be granted to an articled/audit assistant, for pursuing one additional course of study at a time during the period of Practical Training on submission of request in the prescribed form i.e. Form No. 112.
Working Hours
i.Working hours for the articled assistants shall be 35 hours in a week, excluding lunch break.
ii. Office hours of the principal for providing articled training to the articled assistants shall not generally be before 9 am or after 7 pm.
iii. Normal working hours for the articled assistants shall not start after 11 am or end before 5 pm.
iv. Working hours for the articled assistants should not exceed 35 hours in a week excluding the lunch break and normally an articled assistant be required to work during the normal working hours fixed for articled assistants.
v. In case of the exigencies of work, an articled assistant may be required to work beyond his/her normal working hours. However, under such circumstances, the aggregate number of working hours shall not exceed 45 hours per week. The requirement to work beyond 35 hours in a week should not be a practice but only in exceptional circumstances. Further, where the articled assistant is required to work beyond normal working hours, and aggregate of such hours exceed 35 hours per week, he/she shall be entitled to compensatory leave calculated with reference to the number of completed working hours, over and above the stipulated 35 hours per week.
Leave to an Articled Assistant
Regulation 59 provides that an articled assistant earns leave at the rate of one sixth of the period actually served excluding from such period, the period for which he has been on leave subject to a maximum of 156 days. Leave due shall ordinarily be granted, if reasonable notice has been given to the principal by the trainee.
Regulation 65: Articled Assistant not to engage in any other occupation
“Without the previous permission of the Council, obtained on application made in the approved form (Form 112), no articled assistant shall, during the period of his service as an articled assistant, take any other course of study or training, whether academic or professional, or engage in any business or occupation.
