Young black Accounting professionals with at least six years practical experience in finance and accounting - as well as graduates who have completed a three year SAIPA learnership or articles are invited to fast-track their career growth by enrolling by 30 June 2016 for the next phase of Project Achiever. This is a joint initiative by the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) and the Finance and Accounting Services Sector Education and Training Authority (Fasset).
 
The SAIPA-Fasset joint venture was initiated last year to address the question of transformation in the financial services industry by providing the assistance where it is most needed – among the black professionals. Fasset is one of the 21 Seta’s that have been established by the South African government in terms of the Skills Development Act, in order to helps bridge the skills gap, particularly the gap between having a qualification and building a successful Professional career.
 
“The biggest challenge facing South Africa today is the skills mismatch and the inability of our education system to produce graduates that can apply their knowledge in order to grow our economy and solve societal problems. To do that, you need to focus on building competence in cognitive skills and Project Achiever does exactly that,” says Prof Rashied Small, the Education, Training and Membership Executive at SAIPA.
 
Selected candidates will undergo a programme of integrating their knowledge and practical skills and be assisted in their preparation for writing the SAIPA competency-based exam called the Professional Evaluation, which – if passed – will see them being awarded the NQF level 8 designation of Professional Accountant (SA).
 
The designation is one of the few authorised by SARS to provide services as a tax practitioner. A professional accountant can also perform numerous functions and issue reports in terms of the Companies Act, Close Corporations Act, and Micro lending industry regulations, Sectional Titles Act, Non-Profit Organisations Act, and Schools Act.
 
“Project Achiever aims to increase the amount of Professional Accountants available as trusted advisors to businesses in South Africa,” says Zobuzwe Ngobese, Marketing and Communication Executive at the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA).“The initiative is facilitated by SAIPA and funded by Fasset and we are very happy with results yielded by this partnership thus far.”
 
The results for the first group that wrote the exam in November 2015 saw 104 of the 129 candidates considered to be competent and successful to enter the profession as Professional Accountant (SA), a 91% pass rate. This group already has the Professional Accountant (SA) designation behind their name and are members of SAIPA. The candidates reported that the Programme developed their personal and pervasive skills, as well as their competencies to perform work functions as Professional Accountants.
 
“Project Achiever is a good example of competency-based learning that integrates theory and practical challenges in a simplified manner,” says Tania Lee, Director of Projects at Fasset. “In my personal experience projects that have a personal development component as well as the usual professional development component, usually deliver the best results.”

​Further feedback from previous Project Achiever candidates indicates that the new generation of professionals appreciates the modern style of guidance offered during the initiative through alternative teaching and training approaches.
 
“As SAIPA, we are happy to play our part in the transformation of the industry while maintaining a very high standard of quality which ensures that the integrity and sustainability of the profession is intact. We are really making the call to all black professionals that meet the criteria to make use of the opportunity,” concludes Ngobese.
 
More information and application instructions are available from www.saipa.co.za. Prospective candidates can click on http://www.saipa.co.za/page/416632/fasset-project-achiever or send an email to sechaba@saipa.co.za
 
The qualifying criteria includes targeting candidates who meet the academic requirement (completed BCom or equivalent tertiary qualification) as well as the practical requirements: a three year SAIPA Learnership, or six years verifiable working experience in a financial environment – a Recognition of Prior Learning process is available.
 
Participation by African Black trainees or candidates will be funded by Fasset. Other candidates who are not black are also welcome to participate in Project Achiever at a nominal fee of R3 500.
 
Applications for this intake will close on 30 June 2016 and candidates will be taken on a first come first served basis.
 
ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za  
 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
Website: www.saipa.co.za
Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
LinkedIn: South African institute of Professional Accountants Company
Facebook: South African Institute of Professional Accountants

By: Rashied Small, Education, Training and Membership Executive, South African Institute of Professional Accountants
 
As technology gets smarter and takes over more and more of the work we typically deem “skilled”, are professionals like accountants at risk of being replaced? The short answer is “No”. The long answer is “It all depends on the professional accountant’s attitude”.
 
Let’s begin by taking a step back to understand the nature of this trend. The author Martin Ford has written extensively on this subject, and his recent book, The Rise of the Robots, contains a lot of food for thought. The main point that should concern professional accountants is that the ongoing drive towards automation is no longer just a threat to low-level jobs, particularly those that already rely heavily on machinery—think driverless cars, automated mining and agriculture and so on. More troubling, professional work is at risk too.
 
The trouble is that the vast processing resources of the cloud are making it both possible and affordable to develop machines that are not just programmed to be smart via algorithms, but that can learn from their past mistakes. For example, this machine learning is making it possible for software to write news items—already, says Ford, top media outlets like Forbes are using software to generate a news story every 30 seconds. Another example is software called WorkFusion, which can almost completely manage the execution of complex projects.[1]
 
Oxford University research in 2013 suggested that nearly 50 percent of US jobs are susceptible to full automation, and a Parliamentary Report to the House of Lords in 2015 put the figure at 35 percent for British jobs.[2] ​PwC has warned that accounting is the professional discipline most likely to be automated in the next 20 years.[3]
 
Nothing new
There were those who predicted that the advent of the adding machine, and then the growing number of accounting packages, would make the professional accountant redundant. It didn’t happen then, and there’s no reason for it to happen now.
 
These tools removed a lot of the drudgery in accounting, essentially allowing clerks and bookkeepers to move higher up the value chain, to offer a greater value to clients than just neat and balanced ledgers. Ever since, professional accountants have mutated into financial advisors and strategists, and even business counsellors.
 
The growing automation of many accounting tasks currently performed by humans thus presents a real opportunity for professional accountants with the vision to seize it.
 
However, it cannot be emphasised enough that to see the opportunity instead of the threat requires a significant mindshift. Particularly for the smaller accounting practices servicing small to medium-sized enterprises, which often rely on work like processing accounts and compiling financial statements for cash flow—exactly the kind of work that is being automated first.
 
Those who cannot see beyond these traditional pillars of their business will gradually be driven to service smaller and smaller companies, and risk going out of business.
 
Vision and courage needed
On the other hand, those with the vision—and, let’s face it, courage—to seize the opportunity will have to improve their own skills in order to add value by analysing those financial statements and their implication for the business strategy. In other words, the professional accountant can ride on the back of technology to fulfil the role of a CFO or chief strategy officer for smaller clients, or to complement the work of those officers in companies that have them.
 
In conclusion, one should not allow optimism to blind one to the fact that the total number of jobs available in accounting will reduce, and will be under constant pressure to continue adding value. Automation will threaten the work of those who do not have the ability or the drive to upskill themselves. Professional accountants with an eye to the future should be investing in technology so that they can be the ones to provide automated services to their clients; even more critical, they should be investing in the skills of their people to ensure they remain able to offer what machines cannot: judgement and advice.

[1] Martin Ford, The Rise of the Robots. Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment (London: OneWorld, 2015), pp 85-7, 97-8.
[2] Ford, The Rise of the Robots, pp 121-2.
[3] Adri van Zyl, “Accounting jobs most at risk from automation—PwC”, Accounting Weekly, 8 May 2015, , available at https://accountingweekly.com/accounting-jobs-most-at-risk-from-automation-pwc/.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za 
 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
Website: www.saipa.co.za
Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
LinkedIn: South African institute of Professional Accountants Company
Facebook: South African Institute of Professional Accountants