AICPA & CIMA Registers First 100 Apprentices and Signs 17 Employers to Apprenticeship Program in First Year

The AICPA & CIMA has registered over 100 apprentices in its Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business Partners program within the inaugural year of the program. These apprentices represent 17 employers across 15 industries.

Most recently, CareFirst and Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) have signed and joined a roster of employers that include AON (NYSE: AON), HP (NYSE: HPQ), Liberty Bank, Hypertherm Associates, and Messer Americas.

The Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business is the nation’s first-of-its-type program for accounting and finance. It is dedicated to establishing a pipeline of highly engaged candidates that allows employers to monitor and develop more skilled, diverse, and long-term employees. The program is built on the globally rigorous CGMA Finance Leadership Program leading to the award of the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation.

“The battle for talent is increasing, making the need for more skilled accounting and finance talent even more pressing,” said Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, CGMA, Executive Vice President of Business Engagement & Growth at the AICPA & CIMA. “How we address the needs of our finance teams today will better position us for tomorrow. Our apprenticeship combines a world-class learning program with mentorship and on-the-job training, which helps employers recruit and grow their own, providing the kind of workplace the 21st century workforce expects – diverse, inclusive, collaborative, and innovative.”

“The Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business Partners program immerses employees in the experience beyond traditional upskilling methods and will help us to develop diverse and skilled finance teams for now and in the future,” said Tom White, CPA, CGMA, Director of Accounting at CareFirst. “We are excited to make this program available to our finance colleagues to help them gain essential skills, earn their CGMA designation, and carve out a path for job training, mentorship, and career growth.”

Along with growing the participation roster of employers and industries, the AICPA & CIMA are working to increase opportunities for students to have earlier options to benefit from an apprenticeship program. “Apprentices in the AICPA & CIMA Finance Leadership Program need not have completed their two-or-four-year degree to join an apprenticeship program. They just need to complete their degree by the time they complete the program,” noted Joanne Fiore, VP – Pipeline & Apprenticeships at the AICPA & CIMA. ”We are also piloting a youth apprenticeship in Maryland high schools, because we need to attract students into the profession earlier and research shows that high school students in structured earn while you learn apprenticeship programs, such as AICPA & CIMA’s, can be very productive and contribute to the workplace.”

For more than a century, the AICPA & CIMA has focused on driving a robust pipeline of professionals prepared to support and grow organizations worldwide. The Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business Partners is the latest step in that mission.

Benefits of the Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business include:

For employers, apprenticeship programs –

– Are career development programs that establish a pipeline of employees that employers can develop and monitor over time to greatly increase the chance of developing a highly engaged, more skilled, long-term employee.

– Are a talent pipeline management tool, which allows organizations to build, in addition to buy talent, and in doing so take control over how they address ongoing and future needs of their organization and improve recruitment.

– Expand the candidate pool by providing experiences and education that the candidate may not have at the start and allows employers to consider a broader range of candidates.