Ensuring the Relevance of the Chartered Acc

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Growth to Ensure a Sustainable Future
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1950s: Post-war boom

The Menzies Government abolishes land tax, and taxes decline generally in the middle of the century. The Institute issues its first auditing statements and establishes the Australian Chartered Accountants Research and Service Foundation (later, the AARF).

Uniquely among professional accounting bodies, the Institute is an accredited higher education provider. This means that the Chartered Accountants Program earns candidates a Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting – a qualification that can be used to gain exemptions to Masters degrees offered by universities around Australia.

Ensuring the Relevance of the Chartered Accountants Program

In 2008 the Institute successfully gained re-accreditation of the Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting in all Australian states.

A new approach to practical experience

In consultation with candidates, mentors and employers, the Institute redesigned the practical experience component of the Chartered Accountants pathway. This meets international standards set by the International Federation of Accountants requiring a competency-based, structured approach to developing professional knowledge and skills in the workplace.

Another reason for the redesign was to fulfil candidate and mentor requests for more information and guidance on their roles and responsibilities during the three-year practical experience period.

The new Practical Experience Program came into effect for all candidates who commenced their first module from the third term of 2007.

Addressing the skills shortage

The Institute is a leader in enabling non-accounting graduates to enter the profession. The broadening of the entry pathway is providing solutions for addressing the skills shortage.

Broadening the pathway to enter the Program retains the quality and standing of Chartered Accountants, while extending the pool of talent available to employers who have found it challenging in recent years to fill accounting roles.

More importantly, this also realises the Institute’s long-held view that a Chartered Accountant qualification should be available to all high achieving graduates who wish to qualify as accountants, rather than being available only to high achieving accounting graduates who wish to qualify as accountants. This represents a significant step forward for the profession in Australia and is in alignment with global practice.

From 2007, prospective candidates from non-accounting degrees are offered two additional pathways.

Graduate Certificate of Chartered Accounting Foundations (GCCAF)

The Graduate Certificate of Chartered Accounting Foundations offered by Deakin University meets all the academic entry requirements of the Institute. Strong support for the GCCAF has come from all segments of the membership. More than 416 students enrolled in the eight unit online course this year. The Graduate Certificate enables students to acquire a basic grounding in financial accounting, management accounting, finance, taxation, audit, and corporations law, so that they are eligible to enrol in the Chartered Accountants Program.

Entrance exam

The entrance exam is targeted at non-accounting graduates currently employed by an Institute-approved employer who have extensive on-the-job experience. The entrance exam assesses a candidate’s readiness for the Program and identifies any further study they may need. A total of 60 applicants sat the entrance exam in the first 12 months, a number of whom immediately enrolled in the Program.

Skilled Migration Internship Program – Accounting

In a further move designed to ease the current skills shortage in accounting, the Institute, with other accounting bodies, responded to a request from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to develop a Skilled Migration Internship Program.

The objective of the Program is to help international accounting graduates gain the business communication skills required for the Australian workplace. It will be delivered by existing educational institutions with the professional bodies taking responsibility for approving suitable providers and overseeing the provision of the Program.

Enrolments

A relatively modest increase (2.9 per cent) in new enrolments this year partly reflects static growth in domestic students graduating from accounting degrees. To address this and increase the available pool of talent, we expect the broadened entry pathway to the Chartered Accountants Program to make an impact from next year.

Candidate and employer satisfaction

Candidate and employer satisfaction with the Chartered Accountants Program is at an all-time high, with candidates at 75 per cent in December 2007 and employers at 87 per cent in June 2008. Advocacy, defined as 'likely to' or 'proactively to' recommend the Chartered Accountants Program, is also at a very high level: employers at 94 per cent and candidates at 86 per cent.

Candidate program satisfaction ratings 2006 – 2008 (latest measure as at December 2007)
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