East Coast high schools flock to national accounting program

Speaking with Accountants Daily, Kaleb told the brand that Make Accounting Great Again will provide participating accounting firms with supporting resources to deliver the program, and templates to facilitate presentations at schools.

After building relationships with the three secondary education sectors of Australia – government, catholic, and independent – Kaleb said that the sign-ups have been growing.

“It involved holding Zooms and lots of emails. It was a massive logistical exercise in speaking to all of them and getting on board with this programme,” Joe Kaleb told the brand.

Kaleb envisions the program to go well into the future.

“It’s about moving beyond one-off school presentations and creating lasting connections between schools and accounting firms, giving students the opportunity to explore, experience and ultimately pursue a career in accounting,” he said.

“That’s what the program is about; it is to move from the one-off classroom or school visits to actually give students experience, and then hopefully a job when they leave Year 12,” Kaleb said.

“My vision is that within 5 years, there are hundreds of firms, hundreds of schools around Australia that have registered with this program.”

The opportunity for accounting firms

Most high school students do not know the full scope of what accountants do on a day-to-day basis, Kaleb said.

“Think we sit behind a desk and do tax returns; but the reality is very different from the perception. That’s what we need to convey to young people: accountants are business advisors, we’re problem solvers, we’re involved in technology strategy, and we support businesses,” Kaleb said.

“Accounting firms will go in and deliver this program with the supporting resources that have been developed, at schools.”

For Kaleb, this aligns with the goals of the educational sector, something he learned following his consultation prior to the program’s development.

“They don’t just want accountants to go in there and talk about an accounting career for an hour and leave, and nothing happens after that.”

The quintuple approach

The program follows a five-stage approach: explore, engage, connect, experience, and launch.

“Explore means that an accountant will initially go into the school and talk to students about an accounting career,” Kaleb told the brand.

“It’s just to give them some background information about what accountants do, what the different career opportunities within the firm are, and the different qualification pathways,” Kaleb said.

In the next stage of the program, “engage”, Kaleb said that accounting firms present a practical, interactive discussion and walk through real-world experiences to encourage problem-solving and critical thinking.

“It presents like an interactive discussion on some world experiences, real-world experiences, like the distinction between profit and cash flow; you can have rising profit, but cash flow doesn’t keep up with that; so it’s to teach students financial literacy and to read financial statements,” Kaleb said.

The third stage, “connect”, allows students to visit accounting firms.

“This would include an office tour, meeting the team, providing information about career pathways and a Q & A session,” the program reads.

The penultimate stage, “experience”, allows interested students to gain hands-on experience with their school’s partnered firms.

“You’re going to identify students during the program that have an interest in accounting, and you’ll ask them to visit the firm.”

For the final stage of the framework, “launch”, Kaleb said that students get the opportunity to gain further engagement with firms through traineeships or will pursue further study, to eventually get offered some full-time or part-time employment.

The future of the workforce

“There’s a lot of older people leaving the profession, and there’s not enough young people coming through the ranks,” Kaleb told the brand.

“We need to give students more work experience early on, and give them career options like accounting, a career that they might not have considered.”

Kaleb said that the program will help firms form relationships with their future workforce, raise their profile in local communities, and introduce students to potential employment pathways.

“Whether you’re a small firm, a medium or a large firm, every firm can participate in this program to introduce students in their local areas into the profession,” Kaleb said.