Enter National Accounting Olympiad before 30 April

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The Olympiad is a three-hour test that gives learners an opportunity to wrestle with credits, debits and adjustments. It was created to help prepare the learners for tertiary education, help identify accounting talent in schools and show learners the link between the subject and possible career opportunities in the field.

The Olympiad plays an important part in SAICA’s objective to grow the number of chartered accountants in South Africa. For Sage One, supporting this event is about the company’s belief and support of the accounting leaders of tomorrow.

The prizes will include a laptop for the top student; the winning school in each province will be given two desktops, preloaded with NCS Sage Pastel software written specifically for the Grade 11 and 12 national accounting curriculums and the top school’s educator will win R2,000.

Last year 4,100 Grade 11 and 12 learners from 322 schools competed in the Olympiad. The event began in Bloemfontein in 2007 as a regional event and then went national in 2010.

Gugu Makhanya, project director for transformation, growth and professional development at SAICA says, “Year after year, we see that Olympiad participants have an advantage over their peers going into their final matric exams.”

Steven Cohen, head of Sage One International (Africa, Australia, Middle East, Asia and Brazil) adds, “We see it as a privilege to help develop the next generation of financial and entrepreneurial skills, which is why we are such proud supporters of the annual Accounting Olympiad. It is always inspiring to see the passion and talent of the youth studying accounting in South Africa – each year’s contestants always impress us with their commitment, hard work and aptitude for this important subject.”

The participating schools are selected by SAICA, in conjunction with the provincial departments of education. Educators from these schools choose the top 10-15 learners who will participate. Only 500 learners per province take part.

The closing date for high schools to submit their entries is 30 April 2016. The Olympiad will take place on 3 August 2016.

For more information, go to http://bit.ly/1pcmKxp.