Issued on behalf of SAIPA by PR Republic
South Africa’s shortage of accountants is acknowledged to be a drag on economic development—but less well appreciated is the need for those entering the profession to be work ready. The South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) has teamed with the University of Johannesburg to remedy that situation.
“A lack of work experience and soft skills often stand in the way of getting employment for thousands of graduates,” says Xolela Sohuma, Growth & Transformation Officer, SAIPA. “As an organisation, we are passionate about growing the profession, so we were delighted to work with the University of Johannesburg to solve this problem.”
Named Project Infinity, the initiative is aimed at final-year audit students in the Bachelor of Commerce degree. “It’s not enough to equip our students just with the theory,” says Rozanne Smith, who lectures auditing to final-year Bachelor of Commerce Accounting students. “We felt our students needed to be better prepared for the real work environment, which most of them will be entering next year.”
According to Smith, students need to be able to apply the theory they have been learning for three years in a commercial context—and in a way that is consonant with the professional code of conduct enforced by the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA). To help students bridge this gap, the teaching staff came up with Project Infinity, a group assignment that would test their ability to provide a group of potential investors with a thorough business analysis of a fictitious company that they are considering buying.
As in any real-life situation, the students had to produce a written report detailing the risk to the purchasers, plus the target company’s compliance with SAIPA’s code of ethics, legislation and general principles of good corporate governance and King III. The top five groups then had to present their reports verbally to the lecturers and representatives of the sponsors: SAIPA, Deloitte and the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Smith says that the students found the project immensely valuable by showing how what they have been studying will work in the real world. Deloitte made the same point, saying that it needed graduates who knew how to apply theory.
“We were excited by this initiative because of its potential for helping produce finance professionals who are better able to apply theory to the real world in an ethical, principled way,” says Xolela Sohuma, Growth & Transformation Officer, SAIPA. “Professionals like these have a crucial role to play in driving this country’s growth and will be tomorrow’s business leaders. We would like to extend this approach to other universities, and urge employers to become more involved in helping to create a world-class accounting profession in South Africa.”
For the record, Group 74 was the overall winner, with A Jassat the best speaker. Runners up were Groups 73, 72, 77 and 65. Awards were presented at a gala banquet at the Hyatt Hotel in Rosebank.
Source: Tax Talk Blog