Introduction

The accounting profession is an important part of society and over the years there have
been many changes in the profession (Wyatt, 2004). Accountants need to adapt to the changing
environment as their work and that of auditors is changing enormously. On one hand,
technology is simplifying and converting to commodities some of the tasks that were
previously part of the specialized knowledge of accountants. On the other hand, electronic
invoicing, cloud access, and the ability to submit tax returns online are making it possible for
companies and professionals to meet some compliance requirements without the skills and
experience of accountants.
The change is telling of a shift within accountancy firms themselves, particularly the
Big Four, which have been working hard to rebrand themselves as exciting and fluid
purveyors of employment that goes far beyond the safe and steady routine of auditing work.
This shift has helped ensure that the Big Four remain the largest and most attractive
employers for accountants around the world. The following are the members of this
internationally renowned group: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, popularly known as just
"Deloitte", PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst and Young (EY), and Klynveld Peat Marwick
Goerdeler (KPMG).

Emergence and Development of the Accounting Profession

The worlds first professional society of accountants began in Edinburgh in 1853,
made up of sixty-one accountants (Brown, 1905). Accountants wanted to unite into one body
to ensure their legal and actuarial work was completed by appropriately qualified individuals
for the benefit of the public. They are perceived as wanting to protect their economic selfinterest and organizing to form institutions that justified the term profession, as had
established bodies such as law and medicine did earlier (Kedslie, 1990; Walker, 1988).
Walker(1988) and Kedslie (1990) provide evidence of the strengthening of the Scottish
professionalization process by entry, education, examination and training requirements
(Germanou et al., 2009). A different type of professional accountant emerged in the USA in
the late 1880s, which reflected the economic and social conditions in that country between
1870 and 1900. This period witnessed population expansion and in particular the drift from country to
city, industrialization, railroad competition, rising agricultural projects, and the emergence of
a professional middle class. In the UK, economic opportunities for investment by companies
and individuals in the USA opened up the way for a significant influx of experienced Scottish
and English chartered accountants (Lee, 1995). They quickly organized as firms of accountants
and sought the professional credibility to which they were accustomed in the UK. They found no
institutionalized bodies in the USA devoted to public accountancy, and began to form institutions
similar to those existing in Scotland and England. In 1882 the Institute of Accountants was the
first American body of professional accountants. The Institute was open to all professional
accountants and its main purpose was to educate accountants. In1887 the American
Association of Public Accountants was founded which was concerned solely with a public
accountancy membership. In 1895 and 1896 the Institute and the Association sought to
create legislation in the state of New York to license professional accountants who met
prescribed educational and residential requirements. With the passage of the first CPA law in

the state of New York in 1896 to recognize the qualification known as Certified
Public Accountant and the subsequent passage of similar laws, demand arose for qualified
individuals to attest or audit services for businesses (Previts andMerino, 1998). Prior to the 1930s,
no laws or regulations obliged corporations to have their financial statements audited (Zeff, 2003). By the
beginning of the twentieth century, the accounting profession worldwide had laid its
institutional foundations and established a relationship with the state(Germanou et al.,
2009).

Accounting as a Profession in the Philippines

Philippine public accounting practices originated in the 1700s. The enactment of the
Accountancy Law 1923 gave formal recognition to the accounting profession. This law
granted
CPA certificates to those who successfully passed the CPA examinations and
established the Board of Accountancy (BOA) to regulate the profession. In 1929, the
Philippines Institute of Accountants was created--one of the oldest professional accountancy
organizations in Asia and one of the major key players in the development of accounting
standards in the country. There are now over 100,000 Philippine CPAs. The Philippine
Accountancy profession is considered as one of the worlds most vibrant but also one of the
most restricted due to various regulations in the application of standards (Reid, 2002).
Basically, the Philippine standards were patterned after the US GAAP. However, in
1997, the accounting standard setting body in the Philippines decided to start a program to
move fully to international accounting standards issued by the International Standards
Committee (IASC) and since then has continued its adoption of international accounting
standards. In November 2004, the Philippine Accounting Standard Council (ASC) approved
the adoption of revised IASs called Philippine Accounting Standards (PASs) and the
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) issued by the International Accounting
Standards Board (IASB) called Philippine Financial Accounting Standards (PFRS) with first
implementation effective January 2005.

Challenges Facing the Contemporary Accounting Profession

The business environment has become increasingly complex and dynamic -- and
thats something that the accounting profession has had to adapt to in the way we serve our
clients and our own operating models. This dynamism is driven by trends that include
globalization, demographic shifts, technological advances, and regulatory change.
For most business leaders, recruitment is one of their biggest challenges. Long gone
are the days when employers were simply interested in hiring someone who can only carry
out their job role. With the extensive costs and time spent acquiring new members to the
team, many managers want to find candidates who fit in with the workplace culture, enjoy
their work, display leadership qualities, show a willingness to learn new things and are likely
to develop their careers long-term within the company. This is not to mention the positive
impact superstar performers, especially in client-facing roles such as sales, can have on the
company bottom line.

The competition for talent can be stiff in the accountancy sector, and firms often go
the extra mile to reach out to the people they want. Often, they coordinate with educational
institutions to offer places to top graduates or participate in career talks to connect directly
with students. Retaining talent a major challenge given the long hours worked in the
profession is a question of providing sufficient training and support, a structured career
plan and progression and, for those firms with the resources, overseas secondment
opportunities where practical.
A study by specialized staffing firm Accountemps, a division of Robert Half
International Inc. reveals the top non-accounting skills sought in an accountant. These are
General business knowledge (33%), IT expertise (25 %), Communication skills (14%),
Leadership abilities( 13%), Customer service orientation(13%). According to Brett Good,
senior district president of Robert Half, accountants are playing a larger role in organizations
today. While the firm looks for individuals who are technically adept in the field of
accounting, those skills do not make a complete professional. Such demands are birthing a
new type of accountant. The accountant of the future will need to be an innovative problem
solver, adept communicator/team player, competent technological genius and astute legal
expert. These are the skills that will drive relationships with regulators, peers and clients and
ensure the future of the most trusted of the professions.

Response to the Challenges of the Accounting Profession

Firms are reacting by distancing themselves from traditional selection procedures.
Deloitte has taken the surprising step of hiding the name of where applicants went to school
or university from recruiters to prevent any "unconscious bias" from selectors. Rival firms EY
and PwC have also taken similar steps, abandoning their standard academic requirements
for graduate and school-leaver programmes, with the former using its own pre-employment
tests to filter through applicants.
KPMG's highly conventional audit division has broken a 100 year tradition and hired
42 graduates without a business or accounting degree in an attempt to enhance soft-skills
and diversity in the division. It is a massive expansion of a radical experiment trialled by
such firm for the first time last year. It coincides with KPMGs new corporate
reporting rules that will thrust audit teams further into the public spotlight, and
as boundaries between disciplines in professional services blur. Just over a third of KPMG's
389 audit graduate intakes in 2016 do not have an accounting background. Ten per cent of
them have no formal commerce, economics or business degree. Instead, they sport
qualifications in range of areas from environmental science and Mandarin, to counter
terrorism and social work.
PWC Malaysia has a non-accounting graduate programme which is tailor-made for
graduates from diverse backgrounds who are keen to pursue a career in our Assurance
service line. The applicants are given an insight on the fundamentals of accounting and
auditing for a duration of six weeks and thereafter join the firm as an Associate.
In an article published by Michelle Qua of the Business times (2014), it highlights that
a strong calls are being made to diversify the talent pool in the accounting sector. The

accounting industry can do more to increase non-accounting stakeholders. According to the

Singapore Accountancy Commission (SAC), the industry needs to incorporate talent from
different backgrounds and qualifications to further diversify their workforce. The SAC is the
statutory body, established in 2013, tasked with transforming Singapore into a leading
global accountancy hub for the Asia-Pacific region by 2020.The public accounting firms make
up the bulk of the sector. A more diverse employee base will help the sector to perform
better. Michael Lim, Chairman of SAC said that taking graduates from other disciplines will
exemplify the diversity model. Few firms have already taken the lead to recruit graduates
from science, social science, mathematics and engineering fields. Reconsidering recruitment
practices by broadening the talent search will help the sector to thrive.
The launch of the Singapore Qualification Programme (QP) has also made it possible
for non-accounting graduates to join the profession, opening up a new source of talent. The
Singapore QP, which is administered by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants, is
described by the Singapore Accountancy Commission as one of the key instruments for
developing talent in the accountancy sector for the Singapore and Asia-Pacific marketplace,
and it has already drawn considerable interest from both graduates and firms.

Accounting for Non-Accountants

We are now witnessing a shift in auditing. Competition will be tougher and an
integrated and holistic learning is needed more than ever. We are already seeing some work
being wrested from the hands of traditional professions. Some of the competition is coming
from within. But the competition is also advancing from outside the traditional boundaries of
the accountancy professionsfrom new people and different institutions. We see a recurring
need to draw on people with very different skills, talents, and ways of working. Stepping
forward are data scientists, process analysts, knowledge engineers, systems engineers, and
many more. Today, professionals still provide much of the content, but in time they may find
themselves down-staged by these new specialists. We also see a diverse set of institutions
entering the fraybusiness process outsourcers, retail brands, Internet companies, major
software and service vendors, to name a few.
Accounting for non-accountants is already happening. Its only a matter of time
before other countries such as the Philippines will conform to such a change.

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