Technology’s Role in Expanding the Pipeline to the Profession

Many accounting leaders and observers have pointed out the need to expand the pipeline to the profession and suggested ways this could be accomplished. One such proposal is to have accounting recognized as a STEM field, thus making it eligible for federal funding, resources, and attention. An emphasis on the importance of technology to accounting, as befitting the STEM designation, could get more students interested in the profession at an earlier age. The authors surveyed professional accountants and accounting educators about the use of technology in the profession and the potential impact of additional STEM funding to help integrate technology into curricula.

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The Accounting STEM Pursuit Act is a bipartisan bill that advocates for additional funding in accounting within state and local education agencies to implement new programs to teach accounting through 12th grade. The U.S. Department of Education funds STEM education to encourage early interest in different career paths that promote literacy, innovation, and employment. The AICPA voiced its strong support for the bill.

This article collects data from two surveys, one of accounting professionals and one of educators, to explore the potential impact of this legislation. Accounting professionals confirmed the need for, and importance of, technology use at their jobs. The results suggest that increasing funds for secondary education in high schools can be used to increase interest in the field of accounting. It is clear in the responses from educators that more funding is needed, not only for technology resources, but also for staff to teach accounting courses at the secondary education level. Additional funding would provide more opportunities for growth and diversity in the field of accounting by engaging students earlier in their educational journey as well as the purchase of technology resources and provision of additional staffing. Although data collection occurred shortly after the bill was introduced, recent activity on the bill has not resulted in confirming accounting as a STEM discipline. This survey provides valuable feedback from high school educators and professionals on the impact of technology on the profession, as well as addressing pipeline concerns.

Background

In June 2021, the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act of 2021 was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and Labor Committee. Representatives Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN) sponsored the bill to promote career awareness within the field of accounting (“Reps. Spartz and Stevens Introduce Bipartisan Accounting STEM Pursuit Act,” Press Release, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2zh3jhbj). It advocates for state and local education agencies (LEA) to use grant funds for accounting education from the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) Program. LEAs would also implement new programs to teach accounting and allow access to accounting courses through 12th grade if the bill is passed. Funding would provide additional resources to personalize learning and increase technological infrastructure. For example, students in rural or under-served areas may benefit from digital learning and online courses.

The SSAE Program is funded by the federal government and overseen by the U.S. Department of Education. The program is in place to “[improve students’] academic achievement by increasing the capacity of the States, local educational agencies, schools and local communities to:

• provide all students with access to a well-rounded education;
• improve school conditions for student learning; and
• improve the use of technology in order to improve the academic achievement and digital literacy for all students” [U.S. Department of Education, “Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program (Title IV, Part A),” https://tinyurl.com/3hjam2tt].

STEM in primary and secondary education is intended to teach students about real-world applications and develop skill sets that will help them find a career they enjoy. The STEM Education Strategic Plan, Charting a Course for Success: America’s Strategy Education, published in December 2018, sets out a federal strategy for the next five years based on a vision for a future where students will have access to high-quality STEM education and the United States will be a global leader in STEM literacy, innovation, and employment (Executive Office of the President, Charting a Course for Success: America’s Strategy for STEM Education. A Report by the Committee on STEM Education of the National Science & Technology Council, December 2018, https://tinyurl.com/296zrvbh). Employment is one of the goals in STEM education and helps ensure that programs will attract students to different fields.

The SSAE grants are funded by the federal government, with $1.3 billion allocated to STEM education. After the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act of 2021 was introduced, the AICPA voiced its strong support for the bill as a means to help increase interest in the profession at a younger age and create more diversity in the workforce. The AICPA described that accounting professionals use and apply advanced technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and technology-enabled techniques to improve services for STEM, and the overlap in accounting and technology is becoming more prevalent (AICPA and CIMA, “AICPA Supports Accounting STEM Pursuit Act, Which Creates Important Link Between Accounting and STEM,” June 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/5hyxx6eu). The profession evolves as technology advances.

There are many other reasons why accounting should be designated a STEM field. Professor Don Carpenter has identified universities across the country that have successfully achieved STEM designation for their accounting degrees from the U.S. Department of Education (“Is Accounting a STEM Field? Why it Matters,” Today’s CPA, March April 2023, https://tinyurl.com/8mxmda29). In addition to grant opportunities, Carpenter suggests that the STEM designation would enhance opportunities for international students to extend their F-1 visa and remain in the country to seek employment for a two-year, post-degree period. (A complete list of STEM disciplines can be found at: https://ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/stemList2024.pdf.) Accounting has become increasingly driven by technology, information systems, coding skills, data management, data analysis, and cybersecurity. The authors support the STEM designation for accounting and feel it is unfortunate that accounting has not yet been approved as a STEM discipline.

The Surveys

Two surveys were administered to receive feedback from both educators and accounting professionals regarding technology usage and need for funding. Both surveys were approved by the King’s College Institutional Review Board. The first survey (Educators Survey) was sent to two hundred thirty-nine high school business teachers and counselors in Pennsylvania to answer questions that explore how frequently technology is used in a classroom to how readily available accounting classes are for students. Fifty-one responses were received (a 21% response rate) from secondary educators. Ten responses were from high school counselors and forty-one from high school business teachers. The questions were posed to those directly involved with secondary education students for feedback regarding how accounting is taught and the availability of classes at their high schools. The focus was on student engagement in accounting and their utilization of technology in the classroom. There was also a question about the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act to determine whether educators are aware of this bill and approve of additional funding for accounting classes.

The second survey (Accounting Professionals Survey) was sent to 1,000 accounting professionals of all levels of experience to get an understanding of how technology has shaped careers in accounting. Questions explored how often technology is used in their jobs, if grade school and high school accounting education sparked interest in their chosen field, how high school has prepared them for a degree in accounting and whether technology has been an effective tool in their jobs. There was also a question asked about the awareness of the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act to see if accounting professionals are aware of the bill being deliberated in Congress. Seventy-six responses were received (a 13% response rate) from accounting professionals.

The Appendix presents the questions asked in each survey. At the end of each survey, there was an open-ended question where participants could respond with their thoughts on how technology can be better implemented in high schools to increase interest in accounting. Both accounting professionals and educators were given the chance to voice their opinions on adding a focus on technology in an accounting classroom and what kind of opportunities or skills would be useful for students to have a successful accounting career.

The survey was conducted anonymously; however, a demographic question was asked about length of work experience. The Accounting Professionals Survey consisted of a mix of all levels of experience: 12% of professionals had less than one year of experience, 40% 1–5 years, 19% 6–10 years, 17% 11–20 years, and 12% had over 20 years of experience. The Educators Survey consisted of teachers that have taught for a significant length of time: no educators had less than one year of experience, 4% had 1–5 years, 10% had 5–10 years, 37% had 10–20 years, and 49% had over 20 years of experience.

Accounting Professionals Survey Results

Responses to the Accounting Professionals Survey indicated that 92% of accounting professionals always use technology in their jobs while 7% use technology often. Accounting professionals believe that accounting evolves with advancements in technology (61% strongly agree, 36% agree, while 3% neither agree nor disagree). A majority of professionals believe that technology is used to make better business decisions (39% of professionals always utilize technology, while 41% often utilize technology).

When asked how well high school prepared the professional for a degree in college, 33% agreed that high school prepared them for a degree in college, 25% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 25% strongly disagreed. When asked how well high school prepared the professional with the use of technology, 41% of professionals said that they were somewhat prepared, 28% somewhat unprepared, and 19% were neither prepared nor unprepared. This mixture of responses reflects the uncertainty of high school accounting education and the lack of consistency in how accessible accounting is in schools.

When asked if courses in grade school and high school are what sparked interest in the field of accounting, 24% of professionals strongly disagreed, 23% disagreed, 17% neither agreed nor disagreed, 15% agreed, and 21% strongly agreed. This mixed result (see Exhibit 1) suggests an opportunity to modify secondary high school education programs to increase interest in the field of accounting.

When asked about how well high school prepared them for the use of technology in their job, the responses were a mix of somewhat prepared and somewhat unprepared (see Exhibit 2). It should be noted that such mixed responses here and above may reflect the variety of professional experience reported by respondents. These results also suggest an opportunity for secondary high school educators to implement technology in their curriculums to better prepare students for the use of technology in their careers.

The survey asked accounting professionals for feedback on how technology has been an effective tool at their job. One professional answered, “Technology creates efficiencies and efficiencies creates product output, promotes learning, and helps to balance workloads. Data driven insights are instrumental for growth, change, and day to day operations.” Another respondent said, “My job doesn’t exist without technology. Almost everything I do involves Excel in some capacity, along with tools like Power BI. I am also in the process of learning a more advanced technology called UiPath which is an RPA (robotic process automation) tool used to automate manual tasks. This will save myself and my team hours of work which will be able to be spent on more meaningful tasks.” A third professional commented that “It is crucial to my job; we use it daily for data analytics and are developing process automation and AI models to make our decisions more effective.” Many other professionals commented that technology automates tasks, makes work more efficient and effective, and aids in better decision making and collaboration.

The survey asked for feedback from accounting professionals on how technology can be implemented in high schools to increase interest in the field. One professional said, “From discussions with students, it seems that they do most high school accounting by hand (writing out journal entries). Perhaps students would be more interested in accounting if they were exposed to different accounting software, or even Excel templates, so they did not have to write out everything but instead completed the accounting cycle electronically.” Another said, “There are widely used software [products] that can be incorporated to any high school class, even if not specific to accounting. I barely had introduction to Microsoft Office while in high school.” One respondent indicated, “Display the different careers that are heavy in technology and highlight the different tools/skills that can be used. Especially now with data analytics becoming a big thing, incorporate how it plays a role in accounting. Give lessons in coding with R or SQL (used heavily for financial data) and programs like Tableau or PowerBI.” Many professionals indicated they believe that implementing various technologies at the secondary education level including spreadsheets, cases, simulations, data analytics, and learning how to run a business would increase interest in accounting.

Accounting Educator Survey Results

After examining the responses from accounting professionals, the authors explored the feedback directly from secondary educators—those who the bill would impact most. Exhibit 3 illustrates the available funding that each educator has within their school district. A majority of educators disagreed that accounting is currently well-funded.

When asked whether additional funding would help technology play a significant role in teaching accounting, 28% strongly agreed, 35% agreed, 33% neither agreed nor disagreed, 0% disagreed, and 4% strongly disagreed. When asked whether additional funding would allow educators to better prepare students for an accounting degree, 35% strongly agreed, 41% agreed, 20% neither agreed nor disagreed, 2% disagreed, and 2% strongly disagreed. Overall, educators believe that additional funding would help them better prepare students for an accounting degree. It is worth noting, however, that educators may exhibit a bias in favor of increased educational funding given that schools often experience many budgetary constraints.

The survey asked educators where additional funding would be beneficial to help them in teaching the fundamentals of accounting. Participants were given the options of textbooks, technology, lecture notes, case studies, and career day trips, and could select more than one option. Technology was the most popular choice, with 78% of respondents indicating they would use funding to purchase technology resources. Career day trips was the next largest at 59%, followed by textbooks at 41% and case studies at 39% (lecture notes lagged far behind at under 10%).

Educators that did not have a well-funded accounting program voiced concerns about staffing issues. One respondent indicated “funding would be most appropriate for staffing more than anything else—we have one business teacher in a school district that graduates 140 students on average.” A second educator indicated, “We need more certified teachers in this field. Technology would definitely help in the classroom, but more teachers have to come first.”

Funding could be used to spark student interest in the field and grow the discipline. Educators felt that additional funding could help in teaching the fundamentals of accounting and allow for the greater use of technology. When asked for feedback about how they believe technology could be implemented to increase an interest in the field of accounting, one educator explained, “Our students are not familiar with spreadsheets, having the opportunity to teach this at earlier grade levels might interest students more in the accounting field.” A second educator indicated that “My students report being much better prepared for college after we started using Cengage software and MS Excel in our district. It’s critical for them to adapt to the times for not only college, but the workplace. No one uses handwritten ledgers and journals unless they are a tiny company, so we need to send grads out equipped with the skills needed to succeed.” Another educator said, “Giving students access to the actual software/programs/tools that accountants currently use would make the information more relevant and useful. Our business department chair got rid of our accounting classes 2 years ago; she said that they were no longer relevant to the field and felt that student interests were better served by classes in other business topics.” One respondent indicated that, “Increased knowledge of accounting software would allow students to be more college and career ready. Instead of boring, outdated workbook papers, students could be learning on modern software that mimics actual accounting software used by professionals.”

It is interesting to note what one educator said: “In small school like mine, there is only one class period a day where accounting is offered. We have had students who wanted to be accountants graduate without ever having had the opportunity to take the class. Technology and teacher time would allow us to present an online course that could be taken at any time of day.” Another educator indicated that “adding an AP accounting class would bring in more students. We currently have a college in the high school level 2 accounting class that doesn’t attract many students, perhaps due to cost and/or transfer of credits.”

The survey asked educators if an AP accounting course would be important in terms of preparing students for college. The breakdown in Exhibit 4 indicates that a majority of educators felt that offering an AP accounting course is important to preparing students for college.

Limitations

The respondents for this survey were from schools located in the state of Pennsylvania. However, this study could be extended to additional states to explore the need for funding for accounting education in other state programs. If the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act is eventually passed by Congress and signed into law, it will be very important to analyze how best to use additional funding to maximize interest in the accounting profession and utilize technology in high school secondary education classes.

Continuing the Push for More Funding

The decline in accounting majors at the collegiate level and increasing retirements at accounting firms has resulted in fewer professionals working in the field. Secondary education accounting classes can be a gateway to spark interest in the field that may lead to future accounting majors and eventual CPAs. Creating a pipeline to colleges could provide sorely needed additional professionals. The authors explored the potential impact of additional funding for accounting in secondary education. Participants were asked if they were aware of the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act of 2021. In the Accounting Professionals survey, 70% of the respondents were not aware of the bill; in the Educators survey, 64% of respondents were not aware of the bill. It is unfortunate that this bill did not pass, but efforts are likely to continue and it remains a critical component of increasing awareness of accounting opportunities and funding classroom resources to enable educators to better prepare students for an accounting degree and career.

The authors believe that increased funding for secondary education in high schools can be used to increase interest in the field of accounting. College exploration days, open houses, field trips, and other events could also provide opportunities for high school students to visit classrooms and campuses to learn about careers in accounting. Secondary educators and college professors must find more ways to promote the profession and address pipeline concerns. Increased collaboration among high schools, colleges, and universities may help highlight the benefits of a career in accounting and expand the pipeline of additional students needed at the collegiate level. It is evident in the survey comments from secondary educators that more funding is needed not only for technology resources but also for staff to teach accounting courses at the secondary education level. Educators and accounting professionals can help advocate for the passage of the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act by contacting their congressional representatives.