Accounting Graduate Employment Destinations and Commitment to CPD: A Study from Two Australian Universities

Abstract

This study examined the main fields of employment as well as attitudes toward continuing professional development (CPD) and preferred employment of recent Australian accounting graduates. Responses from 310 accounting graduates provide revealing information for professional accounting bodies, academics and the accounting profession. It is apparent that accounting graduates are focused on CPD and have greater ambition than the current industry structure appears to be able to accommodate. The study included analysis of graduates' CPD intentions along with the disparity between respondents' expected and ideal sectors of employment, thus providing further insights into graduates' employment destinations. The results of the study unearthed concerns about the employment satisfaction of many graduates if their ambitions cannot be realistically fulfilled. Coupled with the very strong trend of accounting graduates shifting away from public practice, the ramifications of this research may be timely and relevant for the accounting profession in the new millennium. In particular, the research should be of interest to professional accounting bodies, academics and prospective employers in terms of graduates' perceptions of the need for postgraduate studies and preference for specific professional accounting qualifications as a feature of CPD.

Keywords:

• Accounting graduate
• career path
• accounting profession
• continuing professional development
• postgraduate study

Acknowledgement

This research was made possible by funding provided by CPA Australia.

Notes

1. Albrecht and Sack (2000) suggest more recent demand for accounting majors in the USA is in decline; in contrast this study refers to increased demand for generic business courses in Australia.

2. Statistics available from the Department of Education Science and Training (DEST) in Australia no longer provide a breakdown of accounting discipline graduates due to the aggregation of discipline groups whereby accounting is now reported under the general category of ‘management/commerce’ (see Birrell et al., 2005).

3. The two prominent professional accounting bodies in Australia (CPA Australia and ICAA) require an undergraduate degree together with an accounting specialisation for provisional membership. Both require members to complete professional development to achieve full member status. While CPA Australia has a larger membership with a broad membership base in commerce and industry, CA's dominate public practice and with a large number of members working in the ‘Big 4’.