Meet some of the 100 minds shaping ISCA’s future. Each staff, with his/her unique skills and perspectives, contributes to the collective effort. This series shares insights into some of the day-to-day happenings at ISCA House. Read on and stay tuned for more.
“Hi, I’m Kacie, the Associate Director at ISCA Academy, although my colleagues fondly call me ISCAccountify CEO – with the ‘CEO’ referring to ‘Chief Everything Officer’! They’re not wrong, as I manage and oversee all aspects relating to our subscription-based e-learning platform, ISCAccountify.
This year, I’m celebrating my 10th anniversary at ISCA and wow, how time flies! I remember joining the team in 2014 to administer the Singapore CA Qualification (SCAQ), which was known as the Singapore Qualification Programme (SQP) back then. My role included handling university accreditation, reviewing module exemptions for the Foundation Programme, managing SCAQ workshops, and reviewing exam papers. Coming from an audit background, my time with the SCAQ team was instrumental in laying the groundwork for my current role in learning and development.
In 2019, I took on a new challenge, to support the continuing professional development (CPD) of our members and other professionals in the accounting and finance industry. I was astounded by the diversity of the over-400 CPE courses offered by ISCA annually, featuring topics from ethics to accounting, auditing, digitalisation, leadership, personal development, and more. It was impressive how my colleagues could remember the courses by their codes! Then came the unexpected twist – COVID-19. The lockdown meant all physical training activities had to stop, pushing my team to quickly adapt and convert all classes into webinars and e-learning courses.
COVID-19 massively disrupted my department’s work, as revenue for in-person classes plummeted by almost 50% from the $9 million we used to achieve. Virtual training via Zoom created a lower barrier of entry, and many trainers with ready content began saturating the market with low-priced or even free training sessions.
Navigating the many twists and turns with the CPD team, we decided to ‘ownself disrupt ownself’. My boss Zoey (Zoey Xie, then-Head, Continuing Professional Development, now Acting Managing Director, ISCA Academy) was tasked with rebranding our department into what is now ISCA Academy. This repositioning was significant, as it meant we were no longer just a department within ISCA; instead, we had to operate like a standalone entity. We went through rounds of ‘housekeeping’, retiring courses we had run for years and creating new courses to help members adapt to the post-COVID business world. It was a journey full of surprising learning opportunities, which proved challenging and exciting.
Just as I was getting the hang of the ever-changing new responsibilities, a real CEO, Fann (Fann Kor, ISCA CEO), called for a meeting one day. She asked if I was bored with the traditional CPD training model and ready for new challenges. Fann envisioned a platform that would house all our e-learning resources, where members can pick and purchase or subscribe to the content that they want, at an affordable price.
She asked, “Do you like music? Have you tried listening to music on Spotify? What if I told you ISCA is going to develop a platform that would allow members to receive training in a way similar to listening to music on Spotify? Will you take up the challenge and be the lead and ‘CEO’ of ISCAccountify?”
At that moment, my answer was uncertain, as countless questions ran through my mind. My then-very young toddler was a handful and, coupled with my family commitments, would I have the energy to take on more than my current responsibilities? Would I be held accountable if this platform did not succeed? And would this new initiative cannibalise our existing training model? Before I could voice my concerns, Fann continued, “Can, right? Let’s do it! Zoey and I will give you our full support.”
Thereafter, we set up a small team (just me and two other team members), pulled in resources from our IT department, and embarked on the project. Each weekly meeting with Fann and Zoey was intense, covering everything from platform building and enhancements to content development and marketing plans. It took almost six months before Fann finally let us run the new initiative on our own (yay, no more weekly meetings with her; these were very stressful, to be honest).
On New Year’s Day, 2023, we launched ISCAccountify. This platform has since changed the learning habits of many individuals. Now, our members and accounting and finance professionals can fulfil their CPD requirements with bite-sized videos from the comfort of their homes, during commutes, or even in traffic jams (listening only, of course) – in addition to our extensive selection of CPD course offerings.
Building ISCAccountify was no small feat, and developing the content and enhancing the platform required tremendous effort. However, we believe that on-demand e-learning is the future trend for learning. At present, ISCAccountify has a library of over 400 learning clips, covering a diverse range of topics including accounting standards, ethics, taxation, data analytics, generative AI, RPA, and sustainability. We are committed to delivering even more relevant content through our speakers and collaboration partners, with the potential launch of an enhanced ISCAccountify 2.0 in time to come.
If you are an ISCAccountify subscriber and enjoy our platform, please spread the good word. If ISCAccountify is not quite your preferred learning mode, or if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement, feel free to share them with me.
As I sign off, I’m also looking back with a measure of pride at my two-year journey as ISCAccountify’s Chief Everything Officer, and the successes we’ve had.
Here’s to continuing our mission to support our members and accounting and finance professionals in learning anytime, anywhere! Kthxbye!”
© 2024 Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants
