On fairer access...

Bearing in mind Michael izza's comments above, but with particular reference to Martin Hagen’s paper in the September 2009 issue of Accountancy, I must respectfully disagree with current Institute views on the entry requirements (“fairer access to the profession”) issue. Like Mr. Martin, I came to the profession direct from high school, doing my “five years of January” in London, in the good old 1960s. But that was then, this is now. Then, a student out of high-school could be articled to a solicitor under exactly the same conditions as obtained for ACAs: lots of office slog and coffee-carrying, boring lectures and correspondence courses, and finally: a piece of paper – but no degree. Even today, I am sure there are a few high court judges who never saw the inside of a university having spent two and a half years at the Inns of Court, consuming thirteen major meals in the process! The question is: did not the legal profession come to its senses long ago?

Ten years before I moved to Canada three decades ago, a degree had become mandatory for entry into the accounting profession. Yet forty years later the ACA qualification is still in the dark ages of the 1950s and 1960s! For how long can the ICAEW presume to kick against the bricks of an academic foundation for its members, without being judged in the court of public opinion as mindlessly utilitarian, indeed, without being seen as an intellectual backwater rather than as a major profession?

Clearly, the UK is flying in the face of the other EU countries, where low-level access to the profession is a non-starter. After all, we live in an age when many young people working at McDonalds have university degrees, when the competition for academic bragging rights is stiff, and the media heaps accolades only on those professionals who are adjudged “brilliant,” “intellectual,” “learned.” Those of course are the doctors, lawyers, economists, architects and MBAs – the people who win Nobel Prizes and strut their stuff in the halls of academia and political power. Accountants just don’t cut it. They are stereotyped as crashing bores who hide behind shoeboxes of receipts with calculators at the ready: not an original thought worth eliciting, not a book in sight! 

Is this our profession’s sorry lot in the world? Or could it be that flagship accounting firms in the UK view recruits as mere cannon-fodder for their audit departments, into which a steady flow of young people is guaranteed so long as entry requirements are kept low? Absent a conspiracy theory such as this, the UK profession is seriously deluded about its educational requirements, and must either change its rules of engagement or lose the battle for the best and the brightest. Being one of the only accounting bodies not insisting on graduate entry into the profession is not something to rejoice about.

Yours sincerely,

Dereck C. Sale, FCA
Prince George, BC
Canada
November 18, 2009

I would like to make two points in relation to the comments that Dereck Sale posted on 19 November 2009, in response to Michael Izza’s On fairer access blog entry.

1. The ICAEW’s qualifications continue to be highly respected internationally. As a leading international professional body, the ICAEW delivers – to a competitive, worldwide market – a diverse and relevant range of products that offer learning and professional development solutions for the accountancy profession and business leaders. The ICAEW’s range of professional and specialist qualifications, professional development programmes and technical support are regularly reviewed to maintain quality and ensure that assessment standards satisfy the ongoing demands of global business and financial environments.

2. Addressing the issue of ensuring fair access to the accountancy profession does not compromise our commitment to high quality technical and professional standards. Non graduates can qualify as chartered accountants, for example through the A level route or the AAT-ACA Fast Track or via progression to ACA training following completion of the Certificate in Finance, Business and Accountancy (CFAB). The level that non graduates must attain to achieve chartered accountant status is equally as demanding as that of graduate ACA trainees. 

There are many reasons why talented, bright and motivated individuals' opportunity to attend university is reduced. The UK Government has identified that being from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background can be a major barrier to pursuing a professional career. We have to ensure that we tackle these barriers to the profession. We believe that by doing so, employers will be able to select trainees from a wider, more diverse pool of talent. Therefore, a commitment to fair access should not undermine, but increase the competitiveness of the accountancy profession.