ELIGIBILITY OF A MEMBER TO IMPART INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 2.4 An Associate who has been a member of the Institute for a continuous period of atleast 3 years or a Fellow Member of the Institute, employed in a financial, commercial or industrial undertaking with minimum fixed assets of Rs. 1 crore, or minimum total turnover of Rs.10 crores or minimum paid-up share capital of Rs.50 lakhs, or in an institution or organisation approved by the Council, is entitled to impart industrial training to an eligible trainee registered with the Institute. [Refer to Chapter 5 for a detailed discussion on Industrial Training] PERIOD OF TRAINING 2.5 Presently, two schemes of articleship training are in operation as discussed in Para 2.1. In Para 2.1 various circumstances have been discussed under which a student can continue three year articleship training. These are presented in Table 2.1 below: 18 Table 2.1 A. 3 year Articleship Training (i) All students who are admitted to 3 year articleship training will continue under the same scheme. (ii) All students who have passed Professional Education (Examination-II) may join 3 year articleship on or before 31st May, 2009 (iii) All students of Professional Education (Course-II) who have not passed Foundation Examination / Professional Education (Examination-I) are allowed to undergo studies under the existing scheme. On expiry of the last examination of Professional Education (Examination-II) to be held in May 2008, they are allowed to appear in Professional Competence Examination (PCE). On passing PCE, they are allowed to join 3 year articleship training. B. 3 ½ Year articleship training (i) All students who passed CPT shall join 3 ½ years articleship (ii) All students who passed Professional Education (Examination-I) / Foundation Examination and not joined Professional Education (Course-II) shall also join 3 ½ year of articleship training. A trainee can serve, at his option, nine to twelve months during last year of practical training during articleship, as an Industrial Trainee. Under the earlier scheme, such a student should have also passed the Intermediate Examination of the Institute. The training should be undergone under a member of the Institute, employed in the undertaking as specified in Para 3.4. Regulations 51 and 72 reproduced in Appendix VI, Page 82 deal with the Industrial Training of articled and audit trainee respectively. LEAVE 2.6 The trainees earn leave at the rate of one - sixth of the period actually served by them. Leave due shall ordinarily be granted, if reasonable notice has been given to the Principal by the trainee. In order to prepare for the examinations of the Institute, the trainees shall be granted leave for two months or to the extent of leave due, whichever is less, provided an application for the leave has been made at least 15 days in advance. The days on which a trainee appears for the examination conducted by the Institute (including holidays) are counted as a period on duty. Illustrative cases of computation of leave of Trainee are shown in Annexure II, Page 42. Regulation 59 regarding leave to an Articled Assistant and Regulation 74 regarding leave to Audit Assistant are reproduced in Appendix VII, Page 84. 19 A trainee shall be treated on duty for a period of 20 days for undergoing 100 Hours Information Technology Training and for appearing in 3 hours online examination for the said programme. The Principal should also encourage trainees during the practical training to attend conferences, seminars, etc., relevant to the chartered accountancy course. Regulation 59(7) specifies that the attendance by a trainee, with the consent of the principal, at a conference, course or seminars organised by the Institute, including a Regional Council or a Students’ Association or a Branch of a Regional Council for the benefit of students, is treated as a part of the training period actually served. The details of the Seminars/Conferences attended by the student should be submitted to the Institute alongwith the Diary/Summary Report of Diary on completion of the Training period. A trainee who takes leave in excess of the leave to which he / she is entitled is required to serve for a further period equivalent to the excess leave taken by him / her. WORKING HOURS 2.7 Regulation 60 states that the working hours of an articled trainee shall be 40 hours* per week to be regulated by the Principal subject to such directions as may be issued by the Council from time to time. Further the Council has recommended to all employers that they may observe a five-day week for articled trainees; the choice of the two off days being, however, left to the discretion of the Principal. Such a flexibility has been given to firms so that they could adjust needs of different types of clients. The relaxation of office timings of articled / audit assistants for pursuing graduation/postgraduation course may be allowed by the Principal which should not exceed beyond 1 ½ years from the date of registration to the articled/audit training. 2.7.1 Council’s Guidelines on Working Hours The Guidelines laid down by the Council with regard to observance of the working hours by the articled assistants are as follows: i. The minimum working hours of the articled assistant should be a minimum of 40 in a week. ii. The office hours of principal should not be before 9:00 a.m. and after 8:00 p.m. iii. Subject to the above, the determination of normal working hours applicable to an articled assistant should be left to be decided by the principal. iv. **An articled assistant should, however, work at least seven hours every day (in case, six days week is observed) with plan of working, at least seven hours every day for five days