Accountancy tops students’ career list
2008/12/15
UNIVERSITIES across the country have been inundated with applications from prospective students for 2009 – and many are would-be accountants.
Four universities – Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town (UCT), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan (NMMU) and Johannesburg (UJ) – have all named BCom Accounting as a favourite among school leavers.
And if these learners all graduate, the accounting body in
Saica revealed last month that an additional 22000 chartered accountants (CAs) were needed in the country.
Documents from Saica show that as a career, accountancy’s popularity is on the increase – 3902 candidates wrote the chartered accountancy exam this year.
Only 2974 candidates sat for the qualifying exam in 2002 .
However, there was still a need for more qualified CAs, Saica said.
Investment Solutions chief economist Chris Hart attributed the high demand in BCom Accounting to the high salaries in the field.
“Accountants get better paid and that is still something that needs to be addressed, ” he said.
However, before pupils chased the money, he warned that during the current economic climate, many jobs in the chartered accounting and banking fields were at risk.
Hart said that while there was always a need for skills in the commerce field, there was a shortage of skills in the technology and engineering fields.
https://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=279744
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