The Center for Audit Quality began a new initiative Wednesday to bring more young people into the accounting profession, particularly from Black and Latino backgrounds.
The CAQ’s Bold Ambition strategic initiative to attract more students from diverse backgrounds is supported by the CAQ’s governing board of leaders of the eight largest accounting firms in the U.S. The goal is to drive greater progress in increasing representation of minority groups within the accounting profession. There are two main components;
The initiative comes after years of effort to increase diversity in the accounting profession, which have helped in some ways but fallen far short of expectations. “The profession has been really focused on diversity, equity and inclusion for many, many years,” said CAQ chief operating officer Liz Barentzen. “There’s still a lot of room for growth, looking at the transparency reports our member firms have put out. One of the real issues that we see with the pipeline is with Black and Hispanic talent specifically. That’s not to say that diversity throughout the profession and within the firms is lacking for all demographics, but our focus for this Bold Ambition initiative is centered on Black and Hispanic students at the high school and college level because when we look at the numbers entering the profession, we’re seeing the gaps in the accounting pipeline. We’re seeing some incremental increase for Hispanic students coming in, but [the number of] Black students coming into the profession has remained stagnant over many years now. What our governing board discussions centered on is really understanding what are the key perceptions and motivations of these students.”
When students who are on a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) track were asked about their interest in accounting, only 35% of the Black students, 34% of Hispanic students, 22% of AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) students and 30% of white students were interested in accounting. However, the percentages were better for students who were already on the business school track, with 52% of Black, 48% of Hispanic, 46% of AAPI and 56% of white students on a B school track interested in accounting.
When students were asked what job or career they hope to get into after college, the standouts were business, teaching and medicine, while accounting ranked alongside other a multitude of other professions. The research found that for Black students the most appealing message was about how an accounting career could help them with entrepreneurship careers, while for Latino students it’s a career that would help students support their communities.
The CAQ and the firms hope to improve the interest in accounting among students through outreach efforts. “We’re just at the beginning stages,” said Barentzen. “We’re going to be seeing how students respond. This is going to help inform us going forward about what other interventions need to happen, and where our efforts need to be focused. It’s going to be grounded in data because we're going to be seeing how students are reacting to the content that we will be getting in front of them.”
The CAQ
The CAQ hopes to encourage more students from diverse backgrounds to find their way into accounting and auditing based on their interests, whether it’s in entrepreneurship, helping their community, or just deciding on a well-paying career to pursue. “It's about making sure that students understand this is a career path to bring out what they’re looking to do,” said Barentzen. “We identified a message around students truly understanding that this is a way to fulfill those interests.”
The CAQ plans to work with the firms on its governing board, which include BDO, Crowe, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and RSM US, as well as outside organizations like the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) and the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA).
NABA expressed its support for the effort. “We applaud this bold initiative from the CAQ,” said NABA CEO Guylaine Saint Juste in a statement. “The data is revealing that much is needed to create belonging and relevance in the accounting profession for Black and brown people. It takes intentionality of action and Bold Ambition frames both the opportunities and the challenges to developing the workforce of tomorrow in accounting. We look forward to continuing our work with the CAQ to advance DEI with a keen eye on belonging and relevance in the profession.”
