Feature

Career Fair & Accounting Day 2008
A remarkable event for the accounting students of DU

Taslima Rawshan Tinni and Mahmud-Ur-Rashid

ACCOUNTING is a service activity. Its function is to provide quantitative information, primarily financial in nature as it talks about economic entities that is intended to be useful in making economic decisions and in making reasoned choices among alternative courses of action.

It is also the discipline of measuring, communicating and interpreting financial activity. Accounting is also widely referred to as the "language of business"

Practical and functional information is an important tool for making mind to select career, but it is not readily available in our society. In the present competitive market job seekers suffer from unemployment and most of the times become confused. To help prospective job seekers and the employers to interact, Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems, University of Dhaka, organized “Career Fair and Accounting Day” from May 3 to May 5, 2008. The motto of this event was “Accounting for Good Governance”.

Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems has always been in the leading position in terms of providing quality education in Bangladesh. It had been a long journey for the department since 1970. The program was dedicated to the loving memories of Late Professor Dr. Mohammad Habibullah, A.B.M. Khalid and L.A.S.M. Abdullah, the great contributors and the planners of the department. The present success of this dept. has been possible because of their strong leadership and proper decisions in critical moments.

Prof. Dr. A F M Yusuf Haider, Vice Chancellor (Acting), University of Dhaka inaugurated the fair on 3rd May 2008. In the opening ceremony Mr. Yussuf Abdullah Harun FCA, Former President, FBCCI, Prof. Dr. Md. Serajul Islam, Dean, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka and Mr. Md. Abdur Rahman Sarker MD, National Bank Ltd were present as special guests.

The two-day long career fair was held at the Faculty of Business Studies premises on 3rd and 4th May. Simultaneously, seven seminars took place in the Conference Hall of the Faculty. Many local and Multinational Corporations and professional bodies participated in the career fair. National Bank Limited, TM International (Aktel), Unilever Bangladesh Ltd., Concord Group, ACI, Novartis Bangladesh Ltd., Rahim Afrooz, Coats Bangladesh Ltd., NCC Bank, Swan Group, IB Corporation, and OZ Group took part in the fair. Among the professional bodies, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB), Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Bangladesh (ICSB) participated in the fair. ACCA Students Association of Bangladesh, The Accounting Alumni and 7 wonders voting committee also took part.

The Fair was sponsored by National Bank Limited. Channel i, Prothom Alo, Star Campus (a weekly publication of The Daily Star) , Radio Foorti were the media partners. Official beverage of the program was Clemon.

All the participating organizations were keen to collect resumes from the students. The organizers confirmed that this fair has been organized to give an idea of the future job market to the probable future leaders.

The ICAB, ACCA, ICMAB & ICSB have great contribution to the development of our society and the up gradation of corporate governance and practices. These institutions are providing professionals with opportunity to serve the nation and the Dept. of Accounting and Information Systems is performing its duties prominently for preparing the students eligible for these sectors.

The first topic of the seminar was what does the employer look for in a candidate. Mr. Kamran T. Rahman, President, Bangladesh Employers Federation chaired the seminar. Mr. Musharrof Hossain, President, Bangladesh Society for Human Resources Management (BSHRM) was the Resource Person. Mr. Arif Shahriar, Group Head of HR, Rahimafrooz Bangladesh Ltd. and Mr. Emad-ul Amin, Head of HR, Grameen Phone were the guest speakers at the seminar.

The second topic was Chartered Accountancy as a profession chaired by Mr. Humayun Kabir FCA, President, ICAB, in this seminar Mr. Nasir Uddin Ahmed FCA, Past Vice President & present Council Member, ICAB was the resource person.

Chartered Secretaryship as a profession was the last topic of the Seminar. In this seminar Mr. Itrat Husain FCS, President, ICSB was the session chair and the resource person was Mr. Mohammad Sanaullah FCS, President, IFCS & Past President, ICSB.

On the second day of the fair the fourth seminar took place. The topic of the fourth seminar was Cost and Management Accountancy as a Profession. This seminar was chaired by Mr. Md. Nurul Hasan FCMA, Past President, and SAFA & ICMAB, in this the resource person was Mr. Md. Abdur Rashid, FCMA, Past President and present Council Member, ICMAB, Mr. Mahtabuddin Ahmed FCMA, Finance Director, Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. was the guest speaker at the seminar.

Entrepreneurship: an Option for Accounting Graduates was the title of the 5th seminar which was chaired by Mr. Benajir Ahmed, Former President, DCCI, MD and CEO, Raymond Group. The resource person in this seminar was Mr. Md. Khabeer Uddin Khan, Managing Director and CEO, Swan Group. Mr. Shawkat Ali Bhuiyan (Dilan), MD, Capital Group of Companies was the guest speaker.

The topic of the 6th seminar was Role of Accounting in Public Financial Management. The session chair for this seminar was Prof. Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director, CPD, while the resource person was Prof. Dr. Harunur Rashid, VC, Presidency University, President, ISACA, and Dhaka Chapter.

The last seminar's topic was Internationalization of Accounting Career, which was chaired by Prof. Dr. Harunur Rashid, VC, Presidency University, President, ISACA, Dhaka Chapter, and the resource person for this seminar was Mr. Gopal Chandra Ghosh FCA, ACMA, Head, Internal Audit, Lafarge Surma Ltd.

Accounting Day was observed on 5th May 2008. Mr. Jamal Uddin Ahmad, Former Deputy Prime Minister, GOB, Past President, SAFA and ICAB was the chief guest at the Inaugural Session of the Accounting Day. Prof. Syed Abul Kalam Azad, Treasurer, University of Dhaka was the special guest while the guests of honours were Former Deans, Faculty of Business Studies Prof. A. A. M. Baquer, Prof. Dr. A. H. M. Habibur Rahman, Prof. Dr. Khondokar Bazlul Hoque, Prof. M. Muinuddin Khan, Prof. Dr. Abul Hashem, Prof. Dr. Durgadas Bhattacharjee.

On that day a colorful rally which included traditional Tomtoms, and band party, paraded around the DU campus. Inter batch debate competition as well as business case competition also took place. In the evening of the accounting day an exciting cultural program was delivered at the TSC. Students of different batches of the dept. performed on that evening which was followed by splendid performance of D Rockstar Shuvo and then the night was vibrated by the DJ show.

Through this Career Fair, the department students will get ample opportunity to be familiar with the distinguished professionals and the pioneer leaders of business and trade bodies of our country. It would be a magnificent stage for both the parties to exchange their views, demands and business practices and mitigate the thirst of the students' mind. The exchange and share of views among the parties present will act as a guideline for the students to build up their career. This will help the students to be introduced with the demands of various business institutions and the right time to enter into a job.

(The writers express their gratitude to the organizing committee, volunteers, participants and sponsors for their contributions. The writers are enrolled in BBA program of Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems, DU)