Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Should you be studying accounting?

Why yes, yes, you should. Looks like the shortage of accountants is continuing.

UNIVERSITIES and big accounting firms are recruiting high school students for free accounting degrees in a desperate attempt to alleviate the skills shortage in the profession.

Talented Year 12 students are being offered part-time jobs and free university degrees by firms, even before they have applied for a university place.

First-year students are also being poached by companies to work full-time with incentives such as sign-up bonuses, rumoured to be as much as $10,000 for each student.


Now just think how valuable you'll be if you work hard and get good marks!! Why the shortage? It certainly appears to be demand driven - the supply of graduates with accounting degrees keeps rising. One of the reasons is that accounting "skills" are seen as useful regardless of what 'area' you'll actually end up working in (in much the same way as a law degree is seen as a useful 'general' qualification, even for those not actually practicing law. Another reason that demand is rising is increasing compliance requirements for companies generally (such as the SOX requirements in the United States).

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