Chartered accountants outline focus areas ahead of jobs and skills summit

Peak accounting body Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) believes this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit could be a turning point for the industry with several issues directly impacting the workforce set to be discussed.

CA ANZ Chief Executive Ainslie van Onselen will represent the accounting profession at the two-day event at Parliament House, commencing on Thursday morning.

“What is clear is the skills crisis is not just impacting blue collar industries,” Ms van Onselen said.

“Like other industries, the accounting and audit professions are facing a significant short-fall of talent, with more than 9,000 vacancies across the profession in Australia alone.

“This is critically important because accountants and auditors ensure the integrity of Australia’s capital markets, businesses, and public sector organisations.

“Accountants will be central to helping businesses embrace climate change mitigation and tap into the productivity that can come from an increasingly digital economy.

“At this Summit, I will be raising three key issues with the Government:  

1.      The need to increase skilled migration.

2.      How to boost our domestic skills, training and education capacity. 

3.      Increasing workforce participation – which include the settings to support women, older workers, and the culture needed to lift productivity. 

“Of course, migration is not a silver bullet solution, but in the short term it is the only one really. 

“That’s why we support urgently resourcing and addressing the skilled visa processing backlog, maintaining the preference for skilled migrants in the Migration Program, and more specifically the migration of accounting and finance professionals, who play such an important role in supporting post-pandemic growth.   

“This is not just an ‘Australia’ problem, but a global one, and the best talent will go where they can easily access work.

“Enrolments in accounting degrees sunk by almost 3,000 students in 2021, coinciding with the “Job Ready” reforms that reduced Commonwealth contributions to these courses, as well as increases to student contributions by $3,000 per year.  

“At the same time demand for accountants has hit an all-time peak, with accounting professionals experiencing a surge in demand due to the pandemic and their role as first responders to secure the health of businesses across Australia.   

“We need to consider the fact there are different policy, regulation and governance arrangements for VET and higher education, but very little support for learning and credentialing outside these contexts. We need to explore more support for short courses and micro credentials.

“Added to that, we need to address the fact that learners are generally entitled to financial support for their first qualification but not for further learning and / or shorter form credentials.

“Issues surrounding the gender pay gap are not simply about salaries – but they go to other workplace related factors including promotion, bonuses based on tenure, training opportunities and development.

“We need to increase women’s participation by closing that gap, improving access to affordable childcare, early childhood education and paid parental leave.

“The annual super cap should be replaced with a lifetime cap. The annual cap penalises people who can only make larger contributions late in their working career. It is particularly unfair on women who take extended leave to care for children and other family members. 

“And we want to improve support for mature aged workers and women transitioning back into the workforce through information, retraining, and mentoring including in digital and financial capability. 

“My wish for this Summit is to leave without a wish list. We should walk out with a clear plan of action around skilled migration, and reversing tertiary education changes that disincentivise study in industry critical fields,” Ms van Onselen said.