Strict education requirements and stagnant pay deter aspiring accountants from joining the profession and staying in it. An industry proposal calls for big changes to fix these problems. The proposal, released Tuesday, is the work of a group that a top accounting industry association convened last year to tackle the shortage of Certified Public Accountants, or CPAs.

To read the full Bloomberg article, click here.

Jeannine Birmingham, ASCPA CEO and member of the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) shared, “For the past ten months, 22 members of NPAG have studied numerous data inputs of past surveys and professional reports, has divided into six working groups to deep-dive the reasons when and why the profession losses talent, has crafted issues and solutions, and subsequently has created, launched, a now completed a national membership survey and a student survey. The volume of data and sophistication of issues has been at times overwhelming. What we hope membership takes away from the national report, once final, is that a collaborative effort is key for solutions to work. There are indeed complicated solutions offered which will take additional time to fully develop. Never has this amount of time and study gone into developing and reporting a professional initiative. It is my hope that Alabama members will take the time to read and process the full report and then commit to the Pipeline Pledge."

For more information, visit National Pipeline Advisory Group.