KPMG US chief calls for reform in industry entry requirements

KPMG’s US chief is urging the industry to make it easier to become an accountant in order to halt the “brewing crisis” in the profession, the FT has reported. 

To qualify as accountants in the US, students must have five years of education and one year of work experience, on top of passing the CPA exam. 

However, KPMG US head Paul Knopp became the first chief of a Big Four firm to remove the requirement of a fifth year of education as the number of US students choosing accountancy has fallen. Knopp instead backed an apprenticeship model to replace the last year of education. 

According to government data, the number of US accounting undergraduates has fallen to the lowest level in 15 years. The number of people taking the required CPA exam fell from 100,000 in 2016 to just above 67,000 in 2002, a 17-year low. 

Knopp said to the FT: “We have a ‘brewing crisis’ right now, with the number of students going to college and the number going into accounting, and we need to absolutely address it in the very near term.

“I can’t over-emphasize, it’s not just the Big Four. We need more accountants in corporations and outside of the Big Four. The industry that we are in is systemically important to the functioning of the capital markets.” 

Knopp recognised that many factors have deterred students from choosing the industry and said that KPMG has raised salaries and cut the number of late night and weekend shifts. 

After pressure from the firms, professional association AICPA has this year announced the proposal of substituting the final year of education with a “competency-based experience” in which accounting firms have to certify a set list of technical and professional skills. A second year of work experience will still be required. 

Knopp concluded: “We think we can accelerate development of talent by having them start their apprenticeship with us earlier – really starting work, not unpaid internships.”