Chartered Accountants Ireland has highlighted strong growth in the number of Leaving Cert students taking accounting, particularly at higher level.
Figures from CareersPortal.ie show that the numbers studying accounting in 2021/22 were the highest they have been for a decade, with a 70% increase in those studying the subject at higher level since 2011.
The Institute, the longest established accountancy body on the island of Ireland, educates over 7,000 students in an academic year, and now has over 31,000 fully qualified members on this island and around the world.
"It is fantastic to see that the number of students studying higher level accountancy has steadily increased," said Pat O'Neill, president of Chartered Accountants Ireland.
"This is very encouraging in terms of cultivating a pipeline of bright students to pursue a career in accounting, especially as Ireland is experiencing a real shortage of professionally qualified accountants.
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"While demand for accountants continues to grow, the pipeline of new talent entering the profession is not sufficient to fill the job opportunities available.”
Accounting has been listed on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s Critical Skills Occupations List -- for positions where there is a shortage of qualifications, experience or skills required for the proper functioning of the economy -- since 2016.
O'Neill also reflected on the routes into the profession for students receiving their exam results this week noting that to meet demand for chartered accountants across the economies on this island, the Institute’s training offering has evolved.
"Accountancy has never been as accessible as a profession, and we would like to remind students receiving their Leaving Cert results this week of the wide variety of routes into it," he said.
"There are many options for the next generation to join the profession, whether directly out of school via Accounting Technicians Ireland or after university or college.
"In addition to the well-established Training Contract pathway familiar to many, since 2009 Chartered Accountants Ireland has offered a flexible route, working and training with one of the many companies in different sectors that train Chartered Accountants through their dedicated graduate programmes.”
Figures published in recent weeks by the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) show that Chartered Accountants Ireland now occupies 36.4% of the student market in Ireland, increasing its shared by 5.6% over the past decade.
Notably IAASA's Profile of the Profession report also showed that the Institute recorded strong levels of new student intake in a competitive market, attracting over 46% of new student accountants in the Republic of Ireland for the academic year 2021/2022.
"I am delighted to see almost one in two new student accountants opting for the Chartered qualification. In addition to optimising this qualification, we have also been working to continue to build the talent pipeline to support growth across all sectors of the economy," O'Neill continued.
"A fundamentally important part of this however is ensuring that the Leaving Certificate Accounting syllabus is modernised for developments since the 1990s when it was first introduced, and engaging, to ignite interest in the subject as a career choice for school leavers, which we continue to liaise with the Department of Education on.”
(Pic: Getty Images)
