Routes to qualifications
The accounting and auditing professions in France are accessible via a common study programme leading to the Diplôme d'expertise-comptable consist of a protracted period of multi-stage exams spread over a minimum of 7 years in both public and private institutions. The first level is the DPECF (Diplôme préparatoire aux études comptables et financières), requiring one to two years of study after secondary school; the DECF (Diplôme d'études comptables et financières), requiring a further two years upon completion of the DPECF; the DESCF (Diplôme d'études supérieures comptables et financières), which can be completed in one year. Having successfully passed the three exams, these qualifications provide access to careers as head of an accounting or finance unit or service within industrial and commercial corporations.
The last step, leading to the Diplôme d'expertise-comptable, requires the candidate to undertake a three year traineeship in a professional accountancy firm monitored by a qualified principal, and the preparation of a thesis, a written exam and an oral test. Holders of the final Diplôme d'expertise-comptable, who are in public practice are automatically eligible, once they have taken the professional oath, to enroll with the Ordre.
France is one of the EU states (along with Belgium, Germany and Greece) that restrict membership of professional associations to those working in public practice. Membership is thus associated with a given function and not with a certain educational background in accountancy or auditing; upon leaving public practice in France to work in industry or retire, the individual is obliged to rescind his/her membership of the OEC and CNCC.
The most popular route to the CNCC is by obtaining the Diplôme d'expertise-comptable, thus explaining why the majority of practitioners belong to both bodies. Nevertheless, a specific and very restrictive route exists for French nationals to the CNCC, comprising of a qualifying examination open to persons holding a university degree or an equivalent degree from a higher commercial college (école supérieur de commerce) and practical professional training of at least three years, very similar to the traineeship required to obtain the Diplôme d'expertise-comptable. Both streams can be undertaken at the same time.