Talking About Education

As you could probably tell from my first “President’s Message,” I am passionate about sharing knowledge and experiences. This can take many forms. In this issue I will highlight how we can share our knowledge and experiences through education.

For this column, I am using the word education in its broadest sense and am not just referring to formal education at a school or university. Education also can refer to training and education through your company or firm, a seminar or interest groups meeting, as well as some one-on-one, sit down time. I believe we all benefit from never losing our desire to learn. Education in this sense, refers to continuous learning.

I find that our chapter’s young, new CPAs have as much to teach us more mature CPAs, as we have to share with them. I encourage all of us to be open to healthy learning and exchange.

We have a group in the OC/LB Chapter called Student Outreach. The whole point of this group is to reach out to our chapter’s new, bright minds and give them some pointers and advice on the profession and where it can take them, as well as to share some basics of finance. If you are interested in this group, I encourage you to look for its activities or let me know of your interest.

The exciting news is that, according to the AICPA, colleges and universities are experiencing the highest levels of new accounting graduates in 36 years, and many schools are reporting the highest levels of new accounting students entering this fall. Publicity about accounting issues has created much interest in our profession. But we need outstanding accounting professors to teach these new students. This is an issue not only for those in public accounting, but also for our colleagues in industry.

I want to share some statistics that may surprise you. Over the next five to seven years, it is estimated that 67 percent of our Ph.D. accounting professors will retire. This is both a problem and an opportunity. Finding good Ph.D. candidates is hard to do. Many accounting academics are finding they do not need a Ph.D. in accounting to get out in the world and make a good living. So we have a great shortage of Ph.D. accounting professors. Additionally, housing prices and the cost of living in California, makes it difficult to get good Ph.D. candidates to relocate to our state.

Ahhh … the opportunity. Many colleges and universities are becoming very creative in encouraging people to teach at their schools. For example, many colleges and universities still require a master’s degree for adjunct faculty, but not all. Additionally, more schools are open to professionals coming in and teaching one class or on a part-time basis. Some are open to allowing people to teach a part of a class in the subject matter that relates to that individual’s special knowledge. This is a great opportunity for those of us who have thought about teaching or have reached some level of career maturity, and teaching could be the next step. Reach out to your local college or university, or contact me, and I can lead you to a contact.

But we still need more professors.

You should know and be proud that the OC/LB chapter awards almost $40,000 in scholarships to accounting students every year. The scholarship money comes from an additional amount you can designate when renewing your membership, the OC/LB Chapter Fall Seminar Series and a couple of other events held during the year. For those of you who are parents, you need to know this: We award scholarships to accounting students at two-year colleges, as long as the student is moving on to a four-year school, and also to accounting students at four-year colleges and universities.

The scholarship amounts are $1,500 for a two-year college student and $2,500 for a four-year college student. Here is the really great news: If the accounting student is the child of a CalCPA OC/LB Chapter member,the amounts increase to $2,500 for two-year students and $3,500 for four-year students. Additionally, students who are children of members can submit their application directly to the OC/LB Careers in Accounting team and can be attending college anywhere in the United States.

If interested in the scholarship process, contact either Larry Lamb, who heads up our Careers in Accounting group, at homerun@lmpg.com, or me.

Encourage your children and other young people to explore the outstanding profession of accounting. As an OC/LB member you can get assistance with the cost of accounting education for your child. Accounting is the basic primer to business. It is the foundation for whatever road the individual may take. No other business degree allows someone to graduate and immediately begin a great career in their major.

I wish you all a terrific June.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.