By UOW Malaysia KDU

UOW Malaysia KDU Penang Business School students Jufri Bin Basil Ang, Muhamad Emir Afif and Thum Kit Yi I late in year 2020 joined forces with alumni Chua Ruo Ann in the Accountancy Competency Challenge (ACC 2020). For their efforts they took home the 1st Runner Up prize in this virtual competition.

For the first time the Accounting Competency Challenge was conducted through Zoom

The Accounting Competency Challenge is an annual competition hosted by Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), that is open to all university accounting students, to challenging their accounting competency and proficiency. Students are provided the opportunity to showcase their problem-solving solutions through engaging within simulated scenarios resemble real-world situations faced by accounting professionals. Besides accounting knowledge, students are also tested in other aspects such as their knowledge, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, and other soft skills.

Initially, Jufri, Emir, and Kit Yi were worried about the competition dates, 21^st to 22^nd  November 2020, falling only one week before their mid-term exams, however believing that “high-risk yields a high return”, they took a leap of faith and signed up for ACC 2020. They also took the opportunity to connect with their former diploma classmate, Ruo Ann, who is currently at the University of Reading Malaysia, to together form ‘Team 7, Big4 Believers’.

While preparing for the competition, they grasped more fully what a truly challenging task lay ahead of them. It is true to say that initially they were a little overwhelmed as they were mere first-timers competing with students representing well-known business schools drawn from institutions across the nation. The initial constructive feedback from the judging panel highlighted that the panel were drawn from some of the best accounting professions in the industry. This motivated the team and they refused to give up. “There’s was no thinking of turning back and feeling defeated…we realized we had to keep calm, be confident and keep moving forward” became the inner mantra they held throughout the competition. They managed to put on a calm and confident composure while presenting their insights and answers.

Team 7, Big4 Brothers, shifted their focus from wanting to win to having a growth mindset—to enjoy the process and learn as much they could in this competition, knowing it would come in handy in their future careers. Little did they know that they turned out to be one of the stronger contenders in the competition.

As the event came to a close, the emcee took over the closing ceremony to announce the winners. They were preparing to leave the virtual meeting, when they heard that their group being announced as 1st Runner Up. It turned out, the judges were very impressed with their presentations, accounting knowledge, proficiency, and teamwork. Judges loved how their complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses while competing and problem solving real-world scenarios. Congratulation to Penang school of Business students Jufri Bin Basil Ang, Muhamad Emir Afif, Thum Kit Yi, and alumni Chua Ruo Ann on your win in ACC 2020.

Congratulations to Team 7, Big4 Believers, for winning 1^st Runner Up in Accounting Competency Challenge 2020