The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy are pilot testing a program with Tulane University in New Orleans to make it easier and less expensive for accounting students to earn 150 credit hours to attain a CPA license.
They plan to partner this fall on a post-graduate program with the Tulane School of Professional Advancement to combine online learning with on-the-job professional experience for college accounting graduates. The AICPA-NASBA initiative, dubbed the Experience, Learn and Earn program, or ELE for short, promises to offer a less costly and more flexible way for young people to earn a CPA license. Accounting firms have experienced trouble in filling the pipeline of young accountants entering the profession as more experienced accountants retire. The AICPA 2021 Trends report found accounting graduates trended downward in the 2019–2020 academic year, with declines of 2.8% and 8.4% at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, respectively.
The program aims to ease some of the financial and time hurdles for college graduates. Tulane will pilot the ELE program, with initial classes starting in January. The AICPA and NASBA expect to add more universities to the program soon.
“CPAs perform respected, rewarding work and their lifetime earning potential is substantial,” said AICPA CEO of public accounting Susan Coffey in a statement Monday. “Yet we’re all aware of the soaring cost of education and the need for college graduates to pay off student debt and support themselves. The ELE program offers prospective CPA candidates a program that can reduce their cost of education, allow them to earn a paycheck, and advance their careers at the same time.”
The ELE program is aimed at accounting majors who have completed their bachelor’s degree and core accounting classes but have fewer than the mandated 150 credit hours needed for a CPA license.
Under the pilot program, accounting graduates will join an ELE-affiliated firm as a paid staffer and earn up to 30 university credits through self-study online courses. All the firms will agree to provide participants with time during the week for coursework in a balanced, flexible way. The credit-hour costs will be set at “highly affordable” rates, according to the AICPA and NASBA. Participating firms will need to provide support and mentoring to help program participants work toward their CPA license.
“Lessons from this pilot will be applied to extensions of the program at other universities, with the idea the initiative can grow quickly to meet the demand nationally,” said NASBA president and CEO Ken Bishop in a statement. “The ELE program reinforces the rigor we want reflected in CPA licensure with the needed flexibility and support for today’s accounting graduates.”
The first participating university, Tulane, will offer an initial library of courses on topics relevant to a student’s accounting career, along with topics that accounting firms think will jump-start a participating associate’s career. As the ELE program grows, more courses will be added from other universities, enabling participants and firms the ability to customize their own integrated “learning and earning” plans.
“We’re excited to bring Tulane’s expertise to the ELE program and help expand opportunities for students who want a high-quality academic experience that is also flexible,” said Suri Duitch, dean of Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement, in a statement.
Firms that want to be part of the pilot program can learn more details here. The ELE program is one of several initiatives the AICPA is following to cope with CPA pipeline issues.
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