With an accounting qualification such as a CA(SA) you already have broad legal and compliance knowledge, whether it be regulatory, tax, technical accounting or general legal compliance. Your training and work experience might have given you further specific compliance knowledge regarding eg. FAIS, FSB, CISCA, companies act, Basel III, King 2 etc. You might therefore already be in a position to leverage your existing skill sets into a more compliance-focused career path at your existing or new employer.

We will therefore just give some brief pointers here as to what additional formal legal or compliance related qualifications you could obtain, should you feel you need specific knowledge in your area of interest.

• Pure legal (i.e. commercial law, company law, contract law, labour law, tax law etc)

University degrees or diplomas, eg. LLM (Masters of Laws), Postgraduate diplomas in various specific laws, HDip in Tax law, etc – see links to top law schools in South Africa where you can research specific courses offered by each:

• University of Johannesburg
• University of Cape Town
• Stellenbosch University
• University of Witwatersrand
• Unisa
• University of Pretoria
• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

• Compliance (i.e. regulatory compliance in financial services industry, risk management & corporate governance)

The role of the Compliance Officer is to understand and oversee the management of compliance with applicable laws, rules, codes and standards. Organisations are increasingly relying on their Compliance Officers to provide them with guidance and recommendations regarding their regulatory responsibilities. In addition, the Regulators view the Compliance Officer as an important extension of their monitoring structures.

• Certificate in compliance management from the Compliance Institute of Southern Africa,  the recognised body for all compliance officers in South Africa
• Certificate in compliance management – University of Johannesburg
• Legal Compliance management – University of Cape Town
• Legal Compliance Course For Entrepreneur – Monash University 
• Governance, Risk and Compliance Training Course – analytix.co.za
• STRATE compliance (securities settlement) - Certificate in STRATE compliance
• Chartered secretary – CIS course 
• Corporate Governance course – Astrotech
• Online resources – http://www.saica.co.za
• FAIS compliance course – BRCS
• Basel III compliance certification 

As legal and compliance is such a varied field with ever-changing local and international regulations and laws, the courses and specialisation possibilities are vast, and as such there are probably other options that we haven’t listed above. Your best bet is to research your specific area of interest in detail, discussing with colleagues, managers and educators to determine what is the most useful and appropriate given your career interests. Perhaps on the job training would be sufficient in giving you the additional knowledge you need.

Have we missed something important? Share your thoughts below!