IMA tries to attract young accountants

The Institute of Management Accountants held its annual conference this week in San Antonio, Texas, where it discussed ways to attract more people to join the profession.

One of those ways is with new credentials. Earlier this year, the IMA launched a Financial and Managerial Accounting Associate certification.

“It’s gotten a lot of good traction,” said Travis Willard, senior vice president of product and innovation at the IMA. “I’m really excited about that because that’s a great entry point for people who don’t have traditional backgrounds in accounting and finance to get into the field a little bit more.”

He noted that the certification is designed for individuals with non-accounting backgrounds. “It lays out that foundation that you would need to get into the field,” said Willard. “It’s great for people that are looking to have a better relationship with their finance department. You need to be able to talk that language and be able to really find that common ground, and I think the FMAA is a great place to start.”

The IMA’s main certification, the Certified Management Accounting credential, has been gaining adherents as well this year, especially in India.

“It’s been pretty steady,” said Willard. “We’re seeing growth in some areas that have been surprising, more growth in India. China is still about the same. The U.S. is still about the same, but overall, I think we’re seeing a bit of an uptick. From my perspective. I think those are great industry standards. How do we fill in the gaps? How do we really think about the world of an impending skills economy where we can help people stay on top of their game and keep abreast of the latest emerging technologies or new skills that they need for things like sustainability.”

Young people may need extra incentives to get into accounting, as accounting groups look at ways to make it easier for them to qualify for credentials.

“I think it’s always been a challenge, especially with a younger audience,” said Willard. “They want a lot of flexibility, and the CMA is a lot of work for people who maybe aren’t ready for it. When we’ve introduced it into a university setting, I think it’s performed really well, but for those seeking it on their own, I think it is a lot of work. It’s a great credential for them to have, but I don’t know that it’s going to really change the perception of the industry when we think about how we lower the barriers to entry.”

Artificial intelligence was one of the topics at the conference. “We actually have a whole day dedicated to AI this year, and I’ll be heading that up,” Willard said. “My background is in technology primarily and, more specifically, education technology. I’ll be talking a little bit about one of our new initiatives, which is the Skills Academy, which is really designed to help professionals reskill and upskill throughout their career.”

He sees a growing role for AI technology in the accounting profession and a way to remove routine tasks. “The industry as a whole has a bit of a perception issue,” said Willard. “It’s not really seen as a dynamic and strategic type of role, which it often is. It’s more monotonous. And I think technology, things like RPA and generative AI, can really help to automate some of those more mundane tasks. I really feel like we should be leaning more into that, because the finance and accounting roles are leading to a kind of burnout, and we’re seeing people leave the industry. I think technology can really help there. It’s scary for a lot of people that really don’t know what it means for their job. But we need more problem solvers. We need more strategic thinkers. We need people who can tell whether or not the AI is functioning correctly. Critical thinking skills are going to be at a premium.”

Willard recently joined the IMA and came from the educational technology field. He was chief product officer at Southern New Hampshire University, and before that, was vice president for product and strategy at PowerSchool Group, where he helped develop a Unified Classroom system. He hopes to bring that kind of innovation to the accounting profession.

“I come from a higher ed background, and we’re seeing a lot fewer people go into the profession,” he said. “We’ve got to be creative about how we attract talented people into our area, thinking about how we might bridge the gap between someone who’s already working in another field, and they might be interested in seeing this as career growth. At least from my perspective, we’re seeing a lot of people leave the industry. We’re seeing fewer students enroll in programs like accounting and finance, so it just feels like there’s going to be an impending war for talent when it comes to the need for these types of positions.”

The IMA has partnered with several universities in an effort to get more students to learn the kinds of skills needed for management accounting. “We’re doing a lot of really interesting things with universities,” said Willard. “We have universities that are really thinking about how they can embed us more into their curriculum. The CMA has always been kind of something that we’ve worked with universities on, but we’re talking to universities about the CSCA [Certified in Strategy and Competitive Analysis], which focuses more on strategy, which I think is a really great entry point for people who may not be as familiar with managerial accounting to think about it from a strategic lens,” said Willard. “Most recently, we’ve been talking to universities about how we might coauthor and deliver new types of skill-based content on things like AI, sustainability, ethics, leadership, emerging technologies. We’re really leaning into how we embrace universities as partners, so there’s a lot of ways for us to engage there.”

Experienced accountants and accounting students alike will need to learn new skills to keep up with all the changes coming. “All indications are that the pace at which new skills are going to be needed is actually just going to accelerate with new technologies, with new regulations,” said Willard. “All of these things require a constant need for upskilling and reskilling, and that’s really where I think IMA can be an amazing partner, because that’s really what we’re leaning into. How do we provide shorter term, stackable credentials, stackable meaning that you can combine them to create your own learning paths. You can walk away from them and come back to them and pick up where you left off. That’s going to be critical when we think about where are you going to go? Are you going to go back to universities to get those kinds of skills? We know universities take a while to pivot and to create new programs. I also like the idea, though, of integrated content and curriculum. When you’re learning a technology project, having a curriculum about budgeting and financial planning is really important. We really need to think about how we as an industry, start to layer more of those skills into other areas,”

He believes accountants need to lean into such changes and not fight against them. “We did a survey recently that really showed that a lot of folks still aren’t thinking about things like generative AI as something that they’re going to be investing in, whether it’s training or tooling or things like that,” said Willard. “You really have to lean into it. You have to at least try it, and then we can provide some guidance there as well on where you can go to get really reliable information and training if you need it. And then try to create a bit of a career path because the industry isn’t really known for growing its resources. We’re going to get more specialized in certain areas, and the role of technology is going to become even more important.”