“We need accountants for all types of businesses,” said Leonardo Loureiro, president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI), during the online conference “Career Opportunities for Accountants in the Digital Age.”
At the event, leaders from the business and academic worlds discussed the opportunities available to accountants in the digital age.
The event, organized by the Academic Coordination Office of the Public Accounting Universidad ORT Uruguay at Universidad ORT Uruguay, took place on Tuesday, December 1, 2020. Participants included Dr. Gaston J. Labadie, Certified Public Accountant Rodrigo Ribeiro, MBA, Certified Public Accountant Lourdes Volpi, Certified Public Accountant Ítalo Elola, Certified Public Accountant Alessandro Rovella, and Engineer Leonardo Loureiro, MBA.
Being an Accountant Today
Dr. Gaston J. Labadie—dean of ORT’s School of Business and Social Sciences—spoke about the importance of the evolving role of the public accountant and how the university encourages students in this program to keep their knowledge up to date.
“We gradually introduced digitalization into ORT’s various degree programs. Finally, in 2019, we launched new curricula for all of the school’s undergraduate programs, which were designed to address what we saw as challenging needs,” said the dean.
In the case of the Certified Public Accountant program, the curriculum takes into account the new role that graduates must play in today’s society. In this regard, Rodrigo Ribeiro—partner in KPMG’s Financial Advisory Services Department, associate professor of Corporate Finance at ORT, and member of the KPMG Chair in Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity at ORT’s School of Management and Social Sciences—noted that, today, the role of the Certified Public Accountant has evolved.
“Accountants are now facing technological platforms that are changing the nature of our work,” the expert noted. In that regard, he added that two aspects of technology have become essential: robotics and process mining.
The certified public accountant has evolved from being “a reporter of results and data processor” to “a data analyst.” The expert noted that robots are assistants, not replacements for accountants: “Basically, what they do is increase these professionals’ efficiency.”
Italo Elola—senior manager in the advisory division at KPMG Uruguay, professor at ORT, and holder of a master’s degree in Information Systems and IT Business Management—stated: “Right now, accountants have an opportunity to acquire new skills to combine their knowledge.”
“We need to enhance Contador’s training with data management skills, so that the data can be presented in a way the rest of the team can understand,” he added. “This is an ideal time to recognize that our skills will take on different roles. In each role, we can use this information alongside more traditional skills.”
The new curriculum
Lourdes Volpi—academic coordinator of ORT’s Public Accounting program—noted that the curriculum “aims to train accountants who can serve as business partners, with a proactive attitude, adding value to companies.”
The new curriculum combines a solid, up-to-date education in the core areas of the profession with the opportunity to learn about Big Data, business and data analytics, and programming languages.
In this way, students have the opportunity to tailor their degree program to their interests by taking various sets of elective courses, and to supplement their Certified Public Accountant degree with specialized study in Accounting, Auditing, and Taxation; Corporate Finance; Management and Finance; and Information Systems and Business Analytics.
“In addition to courses specifically related to technology, the thematic offerings are interdisciplinary,” Volpi added. “The goal is to integrate knowledge so that graduates can gain a broad understanding of the business, because that is the only way they will be able to work as strategic partners with owners and various stakeholders.”
Job opportunities in technology companies
Alessandro Rovella—a financial analyst at Laurentian Bank of Canada—noted: “For accountants, not knowing how to code comes with two drawbacks. On the one hand, certain tasks will take longer. On the other hand, within a team, they will fall behind other accountants who do know how to code.”
“Currently, there are many accountants working in the predictive aspect of data science. Accountants also have career opportunities in the industrial technology sector. These organizations need professionals with that skill set,” said Leonardo Loureiro—CEO of Quanam, president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI), and professor at ORT’s School of Business and Social Sciences.
Loureiro said that ORT’s new curriculum for the Certified Public Accountant program seems well-suited to today’s job market. “In two or three years, we’ll likely be looking to hire second- or third-year students.”
“Today, many organizations are implementing management systems,” the expert added. “Ultimately, many of these will be automated. The important thing is for accountants to understand the logic behind the processes.”