With the role of the accounting professional changing drastically amidst a technological revolution, Prof. Jane Hamilton, Dean and Head of School of La Trobe University, Australia, advised students of the CA Sri Lanka School of Accounting and Business to enhance their IT skills if they are to remain successful in the future as accounting and finance professionals.
Delivering a guest lecture at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) on ‘Changing Nature of Accounting’, Prof. Hamilton said that accountants are an important segment in businesses and will continue to remain important, despite the changes and challenges. “But, we must continue to make the right decisions and remain a steady influence to an enterprise,” she said.
She also noted that just as much as accountancy was considered a solid profession, technology was also today equally important and therefore, it was important that both go hand in hand.
As an example of the risks of the technological changes, she revealed how a bank in Australia had retrenched by dismissing 6,000 staff members from the organisation and hiring 2,000 new staff members to their organisation to carry out work in relation to digital technology. “So, they are hiring people with new skills and dismissing people who are into the traditional roles,” she said.
She emphasised, that it was important that everyone keeps themselves up to date. “Don’t get stuck doing a low level job, because there is no guarantee that you might be able to keep that job. Instead, you need to increasingly focus on advancing your skills,” she said addressing over 150 students of the CA Sri Lanka School of Accounting of Business, who are following the Institute’s BSc in Applied Accounting degree.
She said that it was increasingly important that accountants take the right courses in technology and enhance their knowledge in this important area, if they are to remain in demand.
An accountant by profession herself, and a member of CPA Australia, Professor Hamilton congratulated the students for choosing to pursue an accounting qualification.
“You have made the right decision and my accounting qualification has also served me well,” she said.
She emphasized that it was important to identify the need to change amidst a technological revolution and this applied to finance professionals despite their demand.