The Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs is teaming up with universities, accounting firms and other associations to design and launch work-and-learn models that will enable students to continue their college education, begin working in firms or companies, and ultimately pass the CPA exam without compromising the 150-credit-hour requirement. 

During PICPA’s annual meeting in Pittsburgh last month, the institute issued a framework for how it thinks the industry should move forward to address workforce pipeline issues, along with some of the main factors that should be considered. 

“In recent months, we’ve done a lot of listening to CPAs across Pennsylvania to understand what they think about talent and pipeline concerns,” said PICPA CEO Jennifer Cryder. “We drafted an issue brief to reflect back what we’ve heard, so we put that in front of our board and council, and they unanimously voted to support it.”

The plan would not go as far as lowering the 150-hour requirement for qualifying for a CPA license, as the Minnesota Society of CPAs has proposed. Pennsylvania passed a law last year allowing students to sit for the CPA exam after just 120 hours, joining most other states. 

“We were seeing lots of stories of students who are going to college in Pennsylvania, and wanted to pursue the CPA path, but because that was not permitted yet in Pennsylvania, to sit at 120, they would go to a neighboring state, because most of the neighboring states had sit at 120 laws,” said Cryder. “We advocated really hard for that one and did a lot of consensus building. On both sides of the aisle in Pennsylvania, we’re fortunate to have some fabulous CPA legislators that helped get that through. We worked with a really strong bipartisan coalition to make that happen. I’m hearing from students and educators all the time that they’re so thrilled with that change. It went into effect in January of 2023 here in Pennsylvania. The first couple of months of the year, I’ve gotten some really lovely notes, saying, ‘Oh, I’m so glad we can sit at 120 in Pennsylvania now. We don’t have to go to New York, thank goodness.’”

PICPA’s framework acknowledged that any drastic changes to Pennsylvania licensing requirements could threaten the substantial equivalency of Pennsylvania licenses, limit mobility, and expose the licensure model to other threats. The organization advocated for increasing diversity and access to the profession without threatening mobility to better prepare candidates for a career as a CPA. Pathways that meet these requirements include accounting and finance-related, academically rigorous work-and-learn programs.

“As a profession, we have to work quickly and collaboratively to develop an inclusive solution for human capital,” said Cryder. “It’s got to be a long-term strategy. In our discussions, we were keeping trust at the core, because that is foundational to our profession.”

Over the past year, she has been looking at various work-and-learn models across the commonwealth and finding increased flexibility in how students can earn the extra 30 credit hours. 

“In Pennsylvania, the CPA law is quite flexible in terms of how we can achieve work-and-learn models,” said Cryder. “A lot of my time is spent talking with firm leaders, accounting educators and universities. I’m finding that many of them are eager to innovate around these ideas.”

She is optimistic there will be some pilot programs in the fall in Pennsylvania. Getting credit for an internship is not a new idea and has been common over the years, but the process is now being viewed differently. 

“What’s changed is the level of credits that firms and universities are willing to consider, as we’re trying to solve for how we get those extra 30 credits,” said Cryder. “How do we make them meaningful? I am finding firms and universities are much more willing to consider anywhere from three to 30 credits of either credit for work experience, where the work has academically rigorous learning objectives and gets put on a transcript. Or, if they’re not giving college credit for the actual work itself, I’m hearing a lot of models where perhaps the firm is approaching a student with 120 credit hours differently and saying, ‘OK, you’ve got a bachelor’s in accounting. We’re going to bring you into the firm as full-time staff, and we’re going to support you at a whole different level as you get those 30 credit hours and pursue the CPA credential.’”

That’s a different attitude than in the past. “In the past, the expectation from firms was that candidates would come in CPA ready, having finished the 150,” said Cryder. “What I’m seeing in Pennsylvania is a real shift to saying I’m willing to hire new staff at 120 credit hours, and then make time in your schedule, actually blocking out hypothetically 10 hours a week, let’s just say. We’re actually going to block that out and not schedule you, so that you can complete the coursework you need to get to the 150 and be CPA ready. Firms are recognizing that candidates need that level of support to get there, and they need to be helpful and responsive to that.”

She expects to see more programs launching during the fall semester. “Right now I’m hearing immense interest,” said Cryder. “Maybe it’s not a silver bullet that solves the entire pipeline problem, but here’s a really practical solution that does not threaten mobility and substantial equivalency where we can make a real impact now. We don’t have a very long runway to make an impact on this problem. We will see some pilots in the fall, I think, so from those pilots, we’ll see what outcomes they drive: how’s the experience for the university, for the student and for the firm.”