We are delighted to announce that one of our Amatino Partners team members has achieved first place in Ireland in recent CPA exams.
Sarah Lowry, from Ballyhaise, Co Cavan completed her Leaving Certificate in the Royal School in Cavan and joined Amatino Partners after graduating from NUI Maynooth with a BA in Finance and Accounting in 2010.
She decided to continue her studies in accountancy by undertaking CPA exams while working within the firm. Her fantastic results are well deserved and Amatino Partners would like to congratulate her on her achievement.
International recruiters believe that Ireland produces the most highly-employable graduates in the world, according to a European Commission study of third-level education.
Universities in other countries have rated Ireland’s universities as ‘‘excellent’’ in the report, which was prepared for the Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs.The release of the report comes just after a review into ‘grade inflation’ at Irish third-level institutions, following comments from some multinational business leaders to education minister Batt O’Keeffe about the quality of Irish graduates.
The EC report was based on a study of the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending on tertiary education. It found that Ireland was the top of the list of countries, which recruiters found were producing the ‘‘most employable’’ graduates.
Ireland was well ahead of Britain, which was in second place. Ireland came second, behind Finland, in the list of countries that was rated by their peers as having the best universities.
‘‘Considering their size, Finland, Ireland and Sweden are the countries with the more universities pointed out by peers as being excellent," according to report.
The President of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland (CPA) has called on the Minister for Finance to clarify the commitment in the NAMA Bill that banks will "increase their capacity" for borrowing to the SME sector by 10%.
John White, President of the CPA, said, "While we welcome the Minister’s assertion in his speech yesterday that banks will increase their capacity for borrowing to the SME sector by 10%, we are disappointed that this commitment is not clearly defined. References to an “increase in capacity” hide a multitude in terms of measurement. The critical issue facing many previously viable businesses is access to and drawdown of working capital finance.