Membership Structure

According to the Position Paper issued by the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants in January 2017, AAT graduates are allowed to accumulate one-year work experience during 2019 and new AAT members would be admitted to the HKIAAT until 31 December 2019. Thereafter, the HKIAAT will maintain the register for AAT members for 10 years from 1 January 2020 until 31 December 2029.

The HKIAAT works in the interest of its members and students. We are here to support them throughout their careers and provide the resources and guidance necessary for an individual to advance in the accounting profession. As an HKIAAT member you benefit from the recognition of AAT that have been built up among employers and educational institutes locally and internationally. Only members are entitled to use the designations AAT or Fellow AAT after their names. That designation is a guarantee to employers of your professional standards and abilities.

Membership Structure under the New Qualification Framework

The membership structure under the New Qualification Framework (NQF) takes effect from 1 July 2009. Under the NQF, an HKIAAT member is required to comply with three key requirements: knowledge requirements, values requirements, and practical experience requirements.

Values requirements

The NQF aims to reposition the HKIAAT from being primarily a qualification recognizing knowledge gained by examination to a membership designation requiring the ability to apply knowledge and to do so with an understanding of what it is to act in a professional manner.

Acting in a professional manner requires demonstrating professional values, ethics and attitudes. It is this adherence to values determined and held by a peer group that distinguishes a member of a professional body from others who may have achieved and demonstrated a similar knowledge set.

The values component will be addressed using a professional programme named as Professional Assessment (PA), to be delivered by the HKIAAT. For more details of the PA, please click here.

Practical experience requirements

To meet the needs for candidates to demonstrate the ability to apply the knowledge and values awareness they have gained through completion of the AAT examination, and the professional assessment, those seeking membership of HKIAAT will be required to complete practical experience as follows:

Associate member (AAT)

• One year full-time relevant accounting practical experience (Note 1) (pre- and post-examination experience are both acceptable)

Fellow member (Fellow AAT)

• Five years after attainment of Associate Membership (Note 2)

Note:
1. Practical experience will only be recognized to form part of the requisite period if it is continuously in any one company of not less than 4 months of duration and provided that it is full-time.
2. The 5 years Associate Membership to become a Fellow Member must be continuous.