There is nothing like a string of letters after your name to make you feel important. But with an increasingly competitive job market and a shaky economic climate, there are serious career reasons to gain your professional spurs in a business discipline.

While 20 per cent of board members of FTSE 100 companies hold an MBA, 70 per cent hold the ACA, the accounting qualification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. “Business is a numbers game and those who reach the top tend to be people who understand finance,” says Raymond Madden, the institute’s executive director for learning and professional development.

Most people who take an ACA start at an accountancy firm, and the big four – Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) – sponsor a sizeable intake of graduates each year. But many students choose to take the ACA later on in their careers, says Madden. “If you’re thinking of running your own business it is vital to understand profit and loss statements and cashflows, the drivers behind a business.”

Rival qualifications include the CIMA, run by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, which incorporates management as well as accounting, and the ACCA, which is more internationally focused. People with an ACA tend to come out top in salary surveys, however.

“Pure” managers might head to the Chartered Management Institute or the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Both offer a host of courses in different aspects of management and accredit hundreds of centres across the country.

Marketing has not always been seen as needing professional qualifications, says Susan Ward, head of marketing at the Chartered Institute of Marketing. However, its professional and postgraduate diplomas in marketing are increasingly in demand.

“Lots of people think they don’t need a professional qualification,” she says. “In the past marketing has been seen as a bit pink and fluffy. But now people know that it contributes directly to generating business.”

Melissa Foux, finance director at Gü Chocolate Puds, joined PwC to do the ACA after university. It was a good introduction to business. “You get thrown into all different environments,” she says. “My first job was at the London Borough of Newham – they were on strike and I had to cross the picket lines. Then I went to Barclays to do corporate work.”

The ACA is a well regarded qualification, she says. “Having the ability to sign accounts is really valuable. You’ll always be able to find a job.

“For me being an accountant in industry is not about the numbers. Working with clients or in business is about interpersonal relationships and communicating with different types of people. ACA gives you professional thoroughness. If you’re sponsored by a firm and you don’t pass the exams, you get sacked.”