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Accounting

AICPA Conducts Survey on Recruitment and Training Strategies

The group has launched two new surveys designed to fill in gaps and solicit feedback on some of the group’s potential options.

Isaac M. O'Bannon

Mar. 05, 2024

The National Pipeline Advisory Group, an independent panel convened by the American Institute of CPAs’ governing Council to look into ways to boost the pipeline of future accountants and CPAs, is currently fielding two surveys that will help drive its recommendations this spring. One survey is focused on college students, the other on the profession as a whole.

NPAG, a 22-member group that represents a broad spectrum of the accounting profession, has reviewed a substantial body of third-party research related to pipeline issues since its initial meeting last summer, and has conducted inquiries, forums and focus groups to pinpoint the most significant barriers and gain input into potential solutions to the profession’s pipeline challenges. 

The group has launched two new surveys designed to fill in gaps and solicit feedback on some of the group’s potential options. NPAG is due to deliver its draft national strategy on the pipeline to the AICPA’s governing Council in May, with a full report to come in July.

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“We’ve said from the beginning we’d be data driven, that we’re looking to get buy-in from the profession and its many stakeholders, and that we wanted to make NPAG’s process as transparent as possible,” said Lexy Kessler, mid-Atlantic regional leader for the accounting firm Aprio and NPAG’s chair. “These surveys are an important tool that will help inform our recommendations, backed by the research analysis, outreach and deliberation that we’ve already done.”

Both surveys can be accessed at accountingpipeline.org/participate. While similar, they are aimed at different audiences:

  • The first is for current accounting and business students and asks their views on strategies designed to draw new entrants into accounting programs, help them reach graduation, and potentially sit for the CPA Exam, as well as employer strategies to help retain accountants and lessen burnout.
  • The other is open to the full accounting profession, including CPAs, accounting and finance professionals, educators, association members, state regulators and other stakeholders.

Answers and personal information will remain anonymous.

For more information about NPAG, please visit accountingpipeline.org.