Ernst & Young UK recently announced it would not be necessary for job applicants to have minimum academic qualifications because there was no proof having a degree enhanced the performance of a candidate in their professional career.
In Moneyweb (October 7) South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) executive Mandi Olivier said: “(Their) model is different to ours. In the UK you can study whatever you want, and then be trained as an accountant thereafter. In South Africa, accounting is strictly a graduate degree profession”.
However, Olivier did not explain why, historically, Saica's model is better than the UK's or, for that matter, the US'. In the US 47% of graduates surveyed by job site CareerBuilder work in fields unrelated to their academic studies (Business Times, 'Learning from Pep boss Wiese', October 25). Compared to these global financial centres, South Africa is an insignificant outpost.
So why are we in South Africa so fixated on "proper" background that we let it hold us back from developing?
Having studied accounting and worked in an accounting office (I am not a CA, though; I have post-graduate degrees in other disciplines), I can suggest why Saica has placed stringent requirements to enter the profession: to act as gate-keeper.
I was told Saica sets a pass rate of about 50% for the professional (“board”) exams and modulates difficulty to achieve that percentage. This is in order to ensure chartered accountants are relatively scarce and thus maintain their cachet, exclusivity, and most importantly, very high salaries. Their explanation is “to maintain high standards”, though.
I am sympathetic to Saica, to an extent. Because of our poor educational system, our school and college-leavers cannot be compared to British or American.
However, rather than train and pass out the largest number of candidates who meet the minimum requirements so they become productive as soon as possible, Saica, and the Department of Finance, which licences Saica to qualify CAs, are practicing a form of apartheid, which is harming the economy due to the alleged scarcity of CAs. It’s not unusual for candidates to take ten or more years to qualify – longer than medical specialists – in only four subjects!
Saica’s method does not ensure more mature and professionally rounded candidates pass through the system. Many have huge chips on their shoulders or attitude problems, which they emulate from their mentors.
The training system has not changed much since the days of indentured servitude. And training, which Saica stipulates must cover all subjects, is typically confined to auditing, and more auditing, throughout the three years of training (articles), including among the big firms.
The accounting profession remains untransformed. I don’t mean superficial racial numbers, which is how government always looks at it. But by government doing nothing so that the conservatives that ran the profession before 1994 essentially remained in control after. Former finance minister Trevor Manuel missed a golden opportunity to open accounting to new bodies and methodologies when he ratified Saica’s control and charter over the profession. Saica is a private, paid-membership body – different to statutory, independent professional bodies – and its first responsibility will always be to its members.
The problem, as with most things South Africa does relating to the economy, skills and capital, is that certain of our course even though the world has moved on, we are not willing to try new and interesting ways of doing things. This is why our economy is stagnating and is not achieving the level of development we need.
In Moneyweb (October 7) South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) executive Mandi Olivier said: “(Their) model is different to ours. In the UK you can study whatever you want, and then be trained as an accountant thereafter. In South Africa, accounting is strictly a graduate degree profession”.
However, Olivier did not explain why, historically, Saica's model is better than the UK's or, for that matter, the US'. In the US 47% of graduates surveyed by job site CareerBuilder work in fields unrelated to their academic studies (Business Times, 'Learning from Pep boss Wiese', October 25). Compared to these global financial centres, South Africa is an insignificant outpost.
So why are we in South Africa so fixated on "proper" background that we let it hold us back from developing?
Having studied accounting and worked in an accounting office (I am not a CA, though; I have post-graduate degrees in other disciplines), I can suggest why Saica has placed stringent requirements to enter the profession: to act as gate-keeper.
I was told Saica sets a pass rate of about 50% for the professional (“board”) exams and modulates difficulty to achieve that percentage. This is in order to ensure chartered accountants are relatively scarce and thus maintain their cachet, exclusivity, and most importantly, very high salaries. Their explanation is “to maintain high standards”, though.
I am sympathetic to Saica, to an extent. Because of our poor educational system, our school and college-leavers cannot be compared to British or American.
However, rather than train and pass out the largest number of candidates who meet the minimum requirements so they become productive as soon as possible, Saica, and the Department of Finance, which licences Saica to qualify CAs, are practicing a form of apartheid, which is harming the economy due to the alleged scarcity of CAs. It’s not unusual for candidates to take ten or more years to qualify – longer than medical specialists – in only four subjects!
Saica’s method does not ensure more mature and professionally rounded candidates pass through the system. Many have huge chips on their shoulders or attitude problems, which they emulate from their mentors.
The training system has not changed much since the days of indentured servitude. And training, which Saica stipulates must cover all subjects, is typically confined to auditing, and more auditing, throughout the three years of training (articles), including among the big firms.
The accounting profession remains untransformed. I don’t mean superficial racial numbers, which is how government always looks at it. But by government doing nothing so that the conservatives that ran the profession before 1994 essentially remained in control after. Former finance minister Trevor Manuel missed a golden opportunity to open accounting to new bodies and methodologies when he ratified Saica’s control and charter over the profession. Saica is a private, paid-membership body – different to statutory, independent professional bodies – and its first responsibility will always be to its members.
The problem, as with most things South Africa does relating to the economy, skills and capital, is that certain of our course even though the world has moved on, we are not willing to try new and interesting ways of doing things. This is why our economy is stagnating and is not achieving the level of development we need.
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