First Frenchman awarded Chartered Accountant qualification by accreditation of prior experience

Last week, January 11^th the national jury of the French chartered Accountancy Professional degree has decided, for the first time since the creation of this diploma, to award an applicant in accordance with the sections R. 613-33 to R. 613-50 of the French Education Code. This Act allows the national jury to award a person who has not completed his certificates or taken the Professional exam but who possesses established competence, relevant expertise and extensive professional experience in the field of accountant ethics, financial audit and academic research. The chartered accountancy professional degree is the highest diploma in accounting studies in France, that it can be taken 8 years after high school. Until now, only those applicants who hold the Master of Accounting and management and who have completed a 3-year internship in an accounting firm were admitted to this degree.

Since the adoption of the law in 2012, nobody had yet been awarded by accreditation of prior experience. Mr Hervé Boullanger, an auditor in the French Court of Accounts, the supreme audit institution in France, (equivalent of National Audit Office in UK or Government Accountability Office in USA) is the first laureate in this qualification procedure. This first success paves the way for all who were missing this award in initial training but since then have worked one or two decades as highly competent professionals.  Through this new procedure, they will be able to have their value recognized and reach the senior levels of the accounting firms or be assigned the responsibilities of CFO.