There's safety in numbers. If there's one profession that has shown its resilience and ability to weather economic storms of late it's accountancy. Firms will always be looking to save money, keep tidy books and make astute financial decisions. Graduates looking for a career path should follow the grey men into performance management [http://www.accaglobal.com/students/acca/paperf5] accountancy.

The ACCA is a global body for professional accountants and has been around for over 100 years. Its principal aim is to provide business relevant, qualifications and professional development. These aim to give the student not only all the essential knowledge that underpins the function of management accountancy but also the skills with which to put this learning into practice.

The ACCA course is comprised of nine mandatory "Fundamental" papers plus five Professional papers. Of these, the F5 paper on performance management accounting, with its own specific microsite, is perhaps most germane in the prevailing climate. In essence, it gives the finance professional a clear understanding of whether an organisation is delivering, and more importantly, the tools to change and to fix any issues to keep it on track and make informed choices about what direction it should follow in the longer term. It enables the professional to actively manage and create value for the business.

The Syllabus is divided into five subject areas, A to E. Area A looks at Specialist Cost and Management Accounting Techniques. Topic area B, reviews Decision Making Techniques. Section C of the syllabus concentrates on Budgeting. Area D covers Standard Costing and variance analysis [http://www.accaglobal.com/students/acca/paperf5], both essential aspects of the management accountant role. Area E, Performance Measurement and Control gives the student the insight needed to properly view the performance of an organisation from all necessary angles.

These various concepts are the bedrock of an exciting and innovative wave of accountancy practice in business. Throughput accounting for example is indicative of this change in direction for management accounting. This concept highlights the growing functional interdependency within corporate entities, describing one of the key costing disciplines to help decision-making and performance management by focusing on organisational goals and how to maximise the throughput of these. Syllabus Area C explains the theory and application of behavioural budgeting [http://www.accaglobal.com/students/acca/paperf5]. This, modern way of budgeting is something of a departure from the traditional quantative approach and provides an appreciation of how budgets can, if used correctly, be used as objectives to motivate aspirational business performance.

The importance of professional accountancy and its being at the vanguard of the wider corporate world is highlighted in a recent survey by the ACCA and Mercer, a human resources consultancy, entitled "Generation Y: Realising the Potential". The survey, which is available on the ACCA website, interviewed over 3,200 individuals and many leading global organisations in 122 countries and sought to tap into the mindset of the youngest generation of accountancy professionals in the workforce. Among other things the research showed that this generation of dynamic, ambitious and clear sighted professionals "see(s) the accountancy qualification as a great step to a broader business career..." Furthermore, Chris Johnson. UK Head of Human Capital at Mercer comments that "Value creation is key for organisations in the future. Increasingly human capital will be the primary source of competitive differentiation." It seems that accountancy isn't a laughing matter, after all.