CA ANZ is expanding opportunity to reach the starting line of its world-class CA Program. From next year, depending on the candidate’s academic and work history, there will be more flexible, streamlined pathways to reach the CA Program – including a new school-leaver program called CA Fundamentals and a significantly enhanced CA Foundations.

Michelle Ryan, CA ANZ general manager, education content and strategy, explains that increasing the variety of people able to reach the CA Program starting blocks will help address the profession’s significant skills shortage, support increased diversity and bring the pathway in line with international best practice.

CA Fundamentals provides an opportunity for people who have graduated high school and have little work experience to start out on the path to the CA Program. Meanwhile, entry to the more advanced CA Foundations – which was launched in 2015 – will be provided to people who have non-accounting degrees and/or more work experience.

High standards

“The CA Program is not changing,” says Ryan. “By recognising both work and academic history, we’re taking a candidate-centric approach to increase the number and variety of people able to reach the CA Program’s starting line. Not everyone has the chance or means to go to university and that shouldn’t be a barrier to them attempting the rigorous CA Program. If they’re bright, passionate people and can pass its high bar, then they’ll have earned their CA designation and will be welcome to CA ANZ membership.

“All CA Program candidates will still complete the Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting, which is an accredited AQF8 course and is higher than an undergraduate degree. Every single person that completes the qualification earns a postgraduate degree,” says Ryan.

Universities remain essential

Ryan says that while 98% of CA Program candidates currently have an accredited university accounting or finance degree, the number of students choosing to study these degrees in Australia and New Zealand has declined by almost half over the past decade.

“Candidates with a university degree still represent the vast majority of CA Program candidates, but there’s a need for more pathways into the accounting profession,” says Ryan. “There’s no way CA Foundations can ever replace the experience of a three-year university degree – and nor are we trying to. But these kinds of pathways are standard practice in places like the UK.”

Ryan points to the UK experience as demonstrating the enduring attractiveness and value of a university degree for most membership body CA candidates.

“The UK data clearly shows the value of a university degree, as well as the benefits of providing pathway choice. In 2022, 29% of the graduate cohort of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) started without a degree. For the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), it was 11%.”

Addressing the talent shortage

Updating pathways to the CA Program starting line is just one way CA ANZ is working to address the accounting talent shortage.

In July 2024, CA ANZ launched an awareness campaign designed to reach a young audience with the message that you can Make Epic Things Happen with a career in accounting. The campaign extended across cinema, social media, digital advertising and content partnerships to build awareness of the profession.

“We’re appealing to the gen Z and gen alpha audiences, encouraging them to consider a career in accounting,” says Ryan. “Our recent research shows that people within these age groups didn’t even know what accounting was, so they had no perception of accounting careers at all.

“Our careers engagement team is also active on university campuses, with extensive support and presence at open days and high school career days, and they spend a lot of time giving guest lectures.

“The number one thing we hear from accounting employers is that they can’t get enough graduates and they can’t get enough accountants,” adds Ryan. “The new pathways are about supplementing their graduate intakes, not replacing them.”

What are the new pathways?

CA Fundamentals is a one-year, earn-and-learn program for high school graduates. It will be offered only as a pilot program in early 2025 and will provide candidates with key accounting and work-based skills, before they progress to CA Foundations.

Ryan explains that CA Fundamentals is inspired by the successful ICAEW and ICAS models.

“There are formal learning components, which are complemented by on-the-job learning and supervision. So, if you’re a bright go-getter who wants to have a career in accounting and the university pathway is not open to you for some reason, CA Fundamentals is a great place to start to build your epic accounting career.”

The revised CA Foundations will start from 1 July 2025 and will be open to candidates without a degree, as well as those with a qualification other than the traditional accounting or finance degree.

“We’re making CA Foundations more relevant and streamlined,” says Ryan. “It will recognise previous skills and education experience. For example, a person with a law degree won’t have all the accounting subjects, but under the new CA Foundations, they won’t need to complete its business law studies. We want to set candidates up for success, without making them repeat the things they already know.”