Lead The Change. Shape the Future.

Design Your Future

Emerging technology and changes to our physical and social environments are allowing us to reimagine products and services. These forces are inspiring new business models, placing new responsibilities on governments, and creating new opportunities in the not-for-profit sector. At SAF, we’re inspiring the next generation of leaders who will help drive change in all areas of society by redefining what it means to be an accounting and finance professional.

The world needs problem-solvers. The future of work requires professionals with outstanding accounting and financial analysis capabilities, data savviness, business and social awareness, an entrepreneurial mindset, and proven people/teamwork skills.

AFM offers you the freedom to design your own pathway through the program by making decisions about academic specialization, elective courses, and testing out co-op employment and co/extra-curricular experiences you find appealing. This flexibility allows you to align your values and interests with a customized learning experience so that you’ll be ready to lead the change and shape the future in whatever area of society that you wish.

This website helps you understand and navigate the choices you have with respect to course selection and specialization, co-op and co/extra-co-curricular experiences.

Decorative

Year 1 + 2 – Get in the know and be Choice Ready

Your SAF Years 1 & 2

Year 1 and Year 2 of your academic journey is to build your academic foundations in accounting finance and get you choice ready for Year 3 + 4. You'll leverage and integrate your academic, co-op and co/extra-curricular experiences in Year 1 and 2 learn about the opportunities and options you have to futher explore your professional career journey. SAF Advisors, professors and the Performance Management modules aims to support your transition to the SAF community, inspire your engagement in your learning, foster your academic success, enhance your people skills, and prepare you for academic and employment choices/experimentation. Take advantage of the experiential learning opportunities such as events, workshops, interactive webcasts, and team-based problem-solving situations connected to your courses and extra-curricular situations to maximize your success within your first two years as an AFM student.

Your Year 1 & Year 2 Roadmap

Term	Objectives
Fall 1A Term – Get acclimatized to university study and make a healthy transition to the SAF Community	Meet your classmates, faculty, advisors, mentors, and upper year students Develop effective team-based study skills Attend Launch Your Career to get prepared for co-op Identify ways to get involved in the Community
Winter 1B Term – Gain the skills necessary to collaborate in teams, understand of the importance of personal and social responsibility, and start to learn about opportunities	Work with classmates on class projects and assignments Start to develop your network, meet employers, and learn about professional accreditation and job opportunities at special events Practice personal reflection and giving and receiving feedback to/from others
Fall 2A Term – Get Co-op Ready	Get the information and support you need to develop your strategy for your first co-op job search Develop your résumé, practice interviewing Prepare for success on the job
Fall 2B Term – Get Choice Ready	Reflect on your progress, learn more about customizing your degree with specializations and elective courses Consider your ongoing engagement in the SAF Community and how you want to make an impact Start to leverage your knowledge and your network to learn about and seize opportunities

Year 1 & Year 2 Course Roadmap

In order to build foundations in accounting, finance and business, all AFM students must complete the following courses within their first two years of study.

Year One Courses
Fall (1A) Term	Winter (1B) Term	Spring (Off) Term
AFM 111 - Professional Pathways & Problem-Solving	AFM 113 - Analytic Methods for Business 2	Off
AFM 112 - Analytic Methods for Business	AFM 121 - Introduction to Global Financial Markets
AFM 132 - Introduction to Business Stages	AFM 182 (currently listed as AFM 102) - Foundations for Management Accounting
AFM 191 (currently listed as AFM 101) - Foundations for Financial Reporting	BET 100 - Foundations of Entrepreneurial Practice
ECON 101 - Introduction to Micro Economics	SPCOM 111 - Leadership, Communication and Collaboration

Year Two Courses
Fall (2A) Term	Winter (Work Term 1)	Spring (2B) Term
AFM 205 - Introduction to Financial Services* AFM 207 - Introduction to Performance Analytics*	Work Term 1	AFM 241 - Impact of Technology on Business
AFM 206 - Introduction to Tax* AFM 208 - Introduction to Assurance*		AFM 244 - Analytic Methods for Business 3
AFM 212 - Financial Analysis and Planning		AFM 274 - Introduction to Corporate Finance
AFM 273 - Financial Instruments and Capital Markets		AFM 291 - Intermediate Financial Accounting 1
Elective OR ECON 102 - Introduction to Macroeconomics		Elective OR ECON 102 - Introduction to Macroeconomics

*Both AFM 205/207 and AFM 206/208 are 0.25 credits each. These courses are taken together in order to fulfill the necessary 0.5 credit requirement: AFM 205+207 = 0.5 credits and AFM 206+208 = 0.5 credits. Each course will run for 1/2 a term, one for the first 6 weeks, and the second for the last 6 weeks.

Year 3 + 4 – Design Your Own Experience

Customize Your Pathway

Get ready to lead change and shape the future by customizing your AFM pathway. Choose your Career Specialization(s), test out Co-op Employment, and engage in Co/Extra-Curricular activities in Years 3 + 4 to accumulate the knowledge and skills you’ll need.

You must select at least one Career Specialization, however, you can take two in order to truly customize your experience. If you decide to pursue one, you can use your remaining electives to mix and match from other fields of study at uWaterloo that interest you.

Here is how it works:

You have 13 elective courses that you need to take in AFM. Specialization consist of either 5 or 6 courses. Some courses can be applied to meet the requirements for more than one Specialization. The aim isn’t to determine how to do one or two specializations using the least number of electives though. Your goal should be to use your electives to focus on the area(s) of society that you want to impact, and then use your electives to customize your pathway so that you can gain the knowledge and skills to launch your career.

Step 1: Choose a primary Career Specialization. The primary Specializations will often be Professional Accountant or Financial Markets, and sometimes Entrepreneurial Mindset or Sustainability.

Step 2: Consider using remaining electives to combine your primary Career Specialization with a second one in order to develop breath of expertise or to connect your accounting/finance/business analysis competencies with study in another field of study at uWaterloo.

Step 3: Consider exploring co-op and co/extra-curricular activities related to your academic choices to test out ideas, build your network and launch your career.

Professional Accountant Career Specialization

Build on core studies in accounting and explore financial reporting, assurance, taxation, cost management, and performance management at a more advanced level. This specialization fulfills the CPA prerequisite education requirements.

Entrepreneurial Mindset Career Specialization

Develop an understanding of opportunity identification and evaluation. Explore strategy, business planning and execution, customer experience design, marketing, sales, and leadership - all from a new venture perspective. An entrepreneurial mindset is tremendously valuable for those working at large organizations, scale-ups or start-ups.

Financial Leadership Career Specialization

The Financial Leadership Specialization is designed to develop leadership expertise and competencies in AFM students beyond degree required courses. Students will be exposed to a broad variety of topics in finance and will gain skills in negotiation and leadership, while also being exposed to sustainability concepts in a business setting.

Financial Markets Career Specialization

This Specialization allows students to build their own pathway, with the objective of launching their career in the financial services sector. Students develop an understanding of capital markets and financial institutions, securities valuation, and corporate/personal financial advising. The specialization includes courses which cover the CFA body of knowledge.

Business Analytics Career Specialization

This Specialization explores the powerful analytical tools to describe situations, spot opportunities and solve problems. Dive into descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to learn how to manage, forecast, test, and optimize data in decision/policy-making.

Sustainability Career Specialization

Build a foundation in environmental issues and how they affect industries and business decision- and policy-making. Dig deeper into capital markets, government policy, or corporate sustainability to better our world and businesses.

Minors and Studying Abroad

Minors are not a common component of an AFM degree as most require eight courses (0.5 credits each) to complete, and AFM students are required to use either 5 or 6 elective courses to pursue a Career Specialization. Students can use their remaining electives to pursue a complete a second Career Specialization instead of a Minor. The SAF advisor can help you figure out if a minor is a possible addition to your degree.

Studying abroad is an option in 4A and will need to be planned for in advance to allow students to meet the one Specialization requirement. More information can be found on the University of Waterloo's website.

Lead The Change. Shape the Future.

Design Your Future