The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), a professional qualification combining accounting and management skills, becomes more and more recognizable and popular on the mainland.

Charles Tilley, chief executive of the institution, told China Daily that apart from the recent setting up of the first branch in Shanghai, the institution has ventured with mainland multinational corporates to offer CIMA training for the students.

Compared to about 10,000 Association of Chartered Certified Accountants members on the mainland, CIMA is still in an embryonic stage. "Our history on the mainland is short, but more and more students are coming for registration," said Tilley.

According to Shanghai Morning Post, the number of CIMA students is increasing by 800 every year.

Most of the members with CIMA qualifications are senior management of multinational corporate such as Adidas and Unilever and their average annual salary exceeds 350,000 yuan, which is considered among the top-notch professionals on the mainland.

"We are running partnership training programmes with mainland branches of multinational corporates and we hope to further promote them to indigenous companies over the coming five years," said Tilley. CIMA currently forms similar kind of partnerships with about 30,000 corporate houses worldwide.

Currently, CIMA focuses primarily on strengthening the partnership with the mainland branches of multinational corporates. "But indigenous companies could also benefit since the CIMA-trained staff will bring their expertise to local firms as they moved to indigenous companies," Tilley said.

CIMA recently received licence from educational department and set up its first representative office in Shanghai. "We will recruit up to 10 staff by the end of the year," he said.

Tilley said the CIMA-trained professionals are on high demand because of the growing need for accounting professionals with management skills.

He pointed out that examination of conventional accounting institutions provided insufficient management training to fulfil the demand.

Founded in 1919, the institution currently has 69,000 members and 85,000 students. CIMA examinations are available over 100 countries and regions.

The other reason behind CIMA's popularity on the mainland is that many CIMA candidates see the certificate as a shortcut to getting MBA from overseas universities.

A CIMA candidate said: "The CIMA certificate is widely recognized, especially for internationally acclaimed universities."

"For instance, Henley Management College, one of the top 20 business colleges in UK, offers many exemptions for CIMA holders, which could save a lot of time and money," said the candidate.

Cranfield University School of Management awards allowance for CIMA members studying its MBA.

Although Tilley did not specify how many hours a candidate has to devote for the examination, he pointed out that the course was not easier than any other professional examination.

Speaking about the course details, Tilley said: The programme is divided into three levels. For getting the qualification of chartered management accountant, candidates should complete nine papers with a minimum three-year practical experience, of which at least 18 months should be related to management and accounting role.