Are we on the verge of a staffing renaissance?
I don’t think anyone is ready to go that far yet, but the news out of the AICPA is certainly a breath of fresh air.
The number of students who graduated with bachelor’s or master’s degrees in accounting during the 2006-07 school year — more than 64,000 — was the largest in the 36 years the AICPA has been tracking such data. With recruitment and talent management near the top of everyone’s list of the biggest issues facing the CPA profession today, that’s certainly welcome news.
It’s been evident almost since the moment Enron when under, but the driving force behind this educational resurgence appears to be the spotlight of scandal.
“The years in the aftermath of Sarbanes-Oxley have spotlighted the critical role the accounting profession plays in our capital market system,” said Denny Reigle, AICPA director of academic and career development. “One fortunate result of SOX was greater interest in accounting on the part of students, as this report attests.”
The CPA profession has been devoting increasing time and energy to trying to solve the staffing crisis. Those efforts include:
- Tomorrow’s CPA, the MACPA’s student-recruitment initiative;
- Candidate membership, a level of membership designed to guide accounting graduates through the process of passing the exam and becoming CPAs;
- a series of BLI seminars that address staffing issues; and
- a wealth of AICPA information and resources geared toward students and candidate CPAs.
What do you think? Will this influx of accounting talent help ease your CPA staffing worries?