New accountancy pathways for ITE graduates; free AI training for accountants: Indranee

[SINGAPORE] Graduates from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and other recognised institutes of higher learning will be able to enrol for the Singapore Chartered Accountant Qualification (SCAQ) from January 2026, said Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah on Wednesday (Nov 12).

“The new pathways will make the SCAQ more accessible to candidates from diverse educational backgrounds,” said Indranee at the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants’ (Isca) annual conference. She added that further details will be released by Isca and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority at a later date.

SCAQ enrolments have more than trebled from 853 in 2022 to over 2,700 in 2025, noted Indranee. Student membership in Isca has also increased from 3,200 in 2022 to more than 9,000 today, with over 1,000 of these new students coming from non-accountancy courses.

Separately, Isca will launch a free artificial intelligence (AI) fluency programme in 2026 for the accountancy sector, in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority, said Indranee.

Backed by a S$1 million investment from Isca, the programme aims to support non-tech professionals in becoming competent AI users. The majority of the content will be focused on practical use cases in accounting, auditing and finance.

Help with sustainability reporting

Companies looking to improve the credibility of their climate and social-impact disclosures can now reference three landmark publications released by Isca and its partners.

Isca’s partners for the publications are the Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo), National Council of Social Service (NCSS), Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and PwC Singapore. 

These publications comprise a climate-reporting road map, guidelines for social-impact metrics in corporate sustainability reporting, and a survey assessing the preparedness of companies listed on SGX for mandatory sustainability assurance. 

A survey conducted by PwC showed that 47 per cent of SGX-listed companies have yet to make concrete plans for their sustainability reports.

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So far, only 17 per cent have secured external assurance for their sustainability reporting – involving an independent evaluation of a company’s sustainability data to verify its accuracy and reliability – but another 35 per cent said that they plan to do so in the near future.

“Encouragingly, assurance readiness assessments are gaining traction among Singapore businesses,” said Lee Bing Yi, partner for financial services assurance, sustainability and climate change at PwC Singapore. “Over eight in 10 Straits Times Index (STI) constituents and larger non-STI companies have either conducted or are considering assurance readiness assessments.”

The climate-reporting road map aims to assist non-STI issuers in meeting the extended climate-reporting timelines announced in August 2025. It sets a structured approach for gap analysis, governance enhancement and capability building, noted Indranee.

Meanwhile, the guidelines for social-impact metrics reporting were developed by NCSS in partnership with Isca and SID to help organisations measure and report their social impact, building on the NCSS Sustainable Philanthropy Framework.