Embracing a People-Centered Profession

The education that leads to an individual qualifying as a professional accountant is just the beginning.  More than ever, the profession offers a broad range of opportunities, with career paths becoming career lattices.  People qualifying as professional accountants today may be practicing into the 2060s and beyond!  Their relevance and the timeliness of their skills, as well as the satisfaction they derive from professional life, depends on lifelong learning—all the more so in a rapidly changing environment.  Individuals must be prepared to reskill in order to remain relevant in the future.  

• Professional accountants must take personal responsibility for their own lifelong learning and career development elevating learning from a passive, compliance-based approach to one in which learning is tailored, reflective and actively driven by individual needs.[13]  Professional accountants should see PAOs as their key partner in lifelong learning. By driving their own education pathway, professional accountants can take charge of developing sustainable careers.  PAOs must likewise be responsive partners in enabling their members’ career journeys. 
• IFAC believes that ethics and continuing professional development are integrally linked, and that one of the key differentiating factors of a career as a professional accountant is the ethical core established by the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards).   Ethics is the foundation of a purpose-driven profession, defined by its most valuable asset—trust.[14]  IFAC urges professional accountants to enthusiastically embrace their ethical obligations as a core part of their lifelong education.  Professional accountants also have an ethical responsibility to be competent for any work they undertake.[15]  As stakeholder demands and technology evolve, remaining relevant increasingly requires ongoing upskilling and reskilling—professional accountants should not just expect to do the same things differently, but also do different things. 
• IFAC strongly encourages PAOs and others involved in learning and development to adopt and implement the International Education Standards (IESs) when setting education requirements for current and aspiring professional accountants.  The IESs establish requirements for entry to professional accounting education programs, for initial professional development, and for continuing professional development. In so doing, the IESs help establish the foundation for trust in the profession at a global level. 
• IFAC’s approach to advancing accountancy education has been developed to engage a wide range of stakeholders to facilitate agile responses in a rapidly changing environment.  IFAC supports the International Panel on Accountancy Education (IPAE) and its call to action urging PAOs, organizations, and individuals to take steps to re-imagine the future accountant.[16]  The IPAE is a key component of IFAC’s accountancy education stakeholder engagement framework; it provides strategic advice and advocates for quality education for future-ready accountants.  Further, IFAC leverages its role as convener with our international education summit and the Knowledge Gateway as a central location to access thought leadership, guidance and other resources. 
• In addition to technical competencies, such as business acumen, digital acumen, and data interrogation, synthesis, and analysis, professional accountants must develop behavioral competencies, such as intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and adaptability in order to effectively respond to an environment of rapid change and embrace new or alternative ways of working.    Emotional intelligence and strong communication skills will strengthen a professional accountant’s ability to engender trust in clients or other stakeholders and “tell the story behind the numbers.”  Lifelong learning must focus on these, as well as refreshing technical skills.  In so doing, professional accountants can maximize the value they add as trusted business partners. 
• Sustainability and other non-financial information will play an increasing role in corporate reporting because this information improves the relevance of communication between companies and their stakeholders. It also increases the relevance of the assurance and non-audit services that the profession provides.  This is an emerging and evolving field that will rely on the core skills of accountancy but require a significant investment in learning and development.  IFAC encourages PAOs, firms, academics and businesses to continue to work together so that the profession enhances its skills and delivers new relevance to corporate reporting and assurance in the public interest.

Significant progress towards embracing diversity (of people and skills) and ensuring equality with respect to demographic and identity features such as age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socio-economic background and national origin has occurred around the world.  However, there is still more to do, both within society and within the profession.  Gender equality stands out as an area of continued global focus, as recognized by the SDGs.  The accountancy profession can and must take the lead on achieving gender equality and fully embedding a culture of diversity and inclusion into its DNA.  It’s the right thing to do; it’s good for business; and the continued relevance of the profession depends on it.

• IFAC supports the call of SDG 5 to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls so that they may effectively participate in and have equal opportunity for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life. IFAC calls on the global accountancy profession to make gender equality the reality—a given, not a goal.  Importantly, there is no gender equality without compensation equality.[17] 
• Harassment, bullying and intimidation have no place the profession.  A truly diverse and inclusive working environment is impossible with these negative cultural attributes.  Achieving and maintaining a supportive, healthy, professional working environment, is an ongoing task and must be a priority. 
• IFAC believes that workforce diversity—in demographics, race, backgrounds and experiences—facilitates diversity of perspectives.  Diversity of perspectives leads to better decision-making, be it within management or the governing body of a business or organization, within a professional services firm or individual engagement team, within the membership or staff of a PAO, or throughout the profession as a whole.[18]  Ensuring the highest possible quality of decision-making is critical for the accountancy profession, where the central value proposition is trust and judgment.  As such, diversity of perspectives is a strategic imperative.
• Diversity of skills within firms, businesses, the public sector and PAOs is increasingly necessary as the demands of society and stakeholders evolve, business grows more complex, and technology plays a more central role.  All areas of the profession benefit from skill diversity, and individuals who successfully integrate traditional accountancy skills with other/complimentary skills will be in high demand.[19] 
• IFAC believes the multidisciplinary firm business model—which allows for specialists (e.g., risk advisory, forensic reviews, information technology, tax, etc.) to operate within one firm—creates an environment where diverse skill sets gather and develop.  Initiatives to limit multidisciplinary firms would reduce skill diversity, negatively impacting the profession’s ability to best serve its clients, and contribute to the public interest.[20]
• Diversity of perspectives is not achieved by meeting a metric at a certain point in time.  Diversity without meaningful inclusion in decision-making and leadership has no impact.  Certain metrics can provide useful information for stakeholders, for example with respect to the composition of Boards.[21] IFAC and IPSASB, for example, have both recently achieved equal gender representation on their boards.[22]  However, IFAC believes that diversity and inclusion as a mindset that should be embedded into work cultures at every level.  Consideration of diversity must be at the heart of a people-centered profession.