Government Rules on “Highly Skilled Migrants” Need To Be Relaxed Further To Ease Skills Gap For Accountants, Says CCH
Many Likely To Find The Barriers To Entry Are Still Too High
London, August 14, 2007 – A Government scheme which aims to make it easier for highly skilled people to come to the UK to live and work needs to be relaxed further for accountants, if the severe skills shortage the profession is facing is to be eased, says CCH a leading tax and accounting information group, part of Wolters Kluwer UK.
According to CCH, the barriers to entry under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) are still incredibly high for many accountants. The HSMP which was set up in 2002 is intended to simplify the application process and reduce waiting times for visas. Last year the scheme was changed to a points system based on age, education, pay, country of origin and whether applicants have ever previously lived in the UK. A total of 75 points is required.
Martin Casimir, Managing Director of CCH, says that many qualified accountants from abroad find it difficult to qualify for the HSMP due to the emphasis on previous earnings and because professional accountancy qualifications only account for less than half the total points required (rating it lower than purely academic and non-vocational qualifications such as most PhDs).
According to CCH, accountants are likely to need to earn comparatively far more than those with PhDs in any discipline (worth 50 points), in order to reach the 75 point requirement. Points for pay are awarded on a sliding scale of up to 45 points.
For example, a 32-year old applicant with a PhD from a Category A country (such as Canada, Hong Kong or Japan) , who has never lived in the UK, would only need to have earned at least £26,000 in the previous 12 months to qualify for the HSMP.
By contrast, a chartered accountant equivalent qualification is worth just 35 points. An accountant of the same age and situation as above needs to have earned a minimum of £35,000 in the previous 12 months to qualify for the HSMP.
However, for those in Category D countries (such as India or Ukraine), the earnings required could well be further out of reach. For instance, a comparable accountant from India would need to have earned £6,600 in the previous 12 months, or around 538,300 Indian Rupees. However the average Chartered Accountant salary is 382,865 Indian Rupees (source: Payscale.com).
Says Martin Casimir; “Competition for accounting talent, both in the UK and internationally, is getting fiercer. But unless greater value is placed on accountancy qualifications, this programme is unlikely to make it any easier in reality for many highly-skilled applicants to be accepted, especially those from countries like India and Pakistan, who are most likely to want to come to the UK.
“The HSMP should be targeting a greater number of points at those professions where the skills shortage is most acute, rather than simply putting accountants on a par with someone with a Masters in any discipline and below someone with a PhD in any subject.
“Time and time again we hear from accountancy firms that their biggest impediment to growth is the shortage of qualified accountants. The UK has established itself as one of the world’s centres for professional services. If it is to maintain that position it needs the staff or it will be forced to offshore.”
CCH points out that the skills shortage in the accountancy profession is well documented. For example, a 2007 salary survey by recruitment specialists ECHM found that 54% of companies are finding it more difficult to recruit talented individuals now than 12 months ago. This in turn is pushing up wages. Research by recruiters Robert Half found that salaries for accountants in 2006 had increased 7% on the previous year, while for auditors, the increase was 12%.
Globally, Manpower ranked accountants the 5th hardest job to fill in its Top Ten Hot Jobs table, up from 9th last year, and in a recent Deloitte survey of senior finance executives from 73 countries, 42% said their organisations were barely able or unable to meet demand for finance professionals.
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