Abstract:

There are several challenges facing the accounting profession and the one most evident is the growing decline in the uptake of the profession as a career path. This is an international phenomenon including Europe, USA, etc. Prior research recommends introducing the accounting profession as a positive career choice at an early age and demonstrating to students that the accounting profession has changed, with a particular emphasis on doing meaningful and impactful work, and consequently is much more dynamic as a business career option.

Furthermore, it is our opinion that the solution to this issue demands a multi-stakeholder strategy to combat the growing and persistent misconceptions of accounting as a business career choice and, thus, positively generate material/substantial interest in accounting degree courses amongst second level and third level students. These stakeholder groups include third level institutions (in this case MTU Cork); the Irish Government via the Department of Education and Higher Education Authority (HEA), adding accounting to the Critical Skills Occupations list; the various Professional Accounting Bodies (PABs); and accounting firms in practice and industry employers.

Therefore, this emerging paper explores some of the strategic options that can be applied or have already been initiated by various stakeholders in attracting students to take up accounting as a profession. These include more exemptions from professional accounting exams for specialist accounting undergraduate degrees; designing accounting specialist degrees that encapsulate digitalization and sustainability; more innovative, appealing and targeted social media promotion of accounting as a profession by PABs; more attractive/appealing remuneration packages for trainee accountants in both practice and industry; re-imagining accounting syllabus at second level; to name but a few. Some preliminary results around these initiatives will be discussed in more detail in the paper.

Keywords:

Misconceptions of Accounting, Accounting Profession, Promotion of Accounting third level.