Adamant that there is no way the burden of 150 units for CPA licensure will ever be rolled back to 120, the AICPA and NASBA have scored a second school-firm collaboration for their CPA Pathway Apprenticeship initiative: Seton Hall University and Withum. The program trades work in the field for credits toward 150.
Students will be full-time apprentice-level team members at Withum, with an opportunity to work in all service lines and industries while earning credits for their curriculum-driven experience alongside university coursework to fulfill the remaining credits needed to reach the credits hour requirement to hold a CPA license. The students may also sit for the CPA exam during the program, affording them the opportunity to become licensed CPAs by the time they start their accounting career as full-time, entry-level Staff I team members at the Firm.
Five Seton Hall students will start at the firm in September and the pilot program lasts for a year. The news release includes a quote from one of them who said:
“Everyone knows how hard it is to obtain the CPA certification, and with this program, I am substantially closer to obtaining the certification. With the help of Seton Hall University and Withum, I can now continue my academic career with the people who helped me get here.”
They don’t say how much these five folks will be paid, only that they will “receive compensation during their final year of school.”
“We truly value Withum’s partnership and investment in this innovative apprenticeship model and the Seton Hall accounting talent pipeline,” said Mary Kate Naatus, Ph.D., Assistant Provost and Dean of Continuing Education and Professional Studies at Seton Hall University. “The combination of a strong curriculum with excellent faculty members with the real world ‘work for credit’ experience on-site at Withum is an exemplary model that mutually benefits the students, industry partner and the broader accounting field.”
Wow they’re really laying it on thick aren’t they.
“The war on talent remains at an all-time high in the accounting industry, the CPA Pathway Apprenticeship is a solution to expose emerging talent to the day-to-day life of an accounting professional at Withum,” reads the release. A similar collaboration between PwC and New Jersey’s St. Peter’s University was launched last year.
If you’re going to be forced to work in order to meet some arbitrary requirement that is proven not to have any positive impact on the quality of CPAs entering the profession, there are worse places than Withum to do it.
Seton Hall University and Withum Launch CPA Pathway Apprenticeship for Aspiring Accounting Students [Withum]
So instead of dealing with the extra 30 hours we are going to turn it into a cheap labor internship and make the whole thing a farce (?).
Great plan.