people2people news | September 7, 2010
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Posted by Lisa: January 16, 2009On Wednesday January 14, 2009 the Sydney Morning Herald published an article entitled “Migrant accountants fail English test”
Based on this quarter’s People and Place, the most recent Monash University study is a follow up piece on last quarter’s published work. It is pleasing to see that this most recent article supports people2people’s analysis of the original report back in August 2008 (http://www.people2people.com.au/news/?p=237) where we highlighted and found reasons for the difference between English speaking migrants and non-English speaking migrants. However the article blurs the line between technical accounting skill and English language abilities
“The main reason is poor English skills…Australian universities are conferring graduate credentials on students who do not have the skills needed to practise their profession”
This scathing assessment of the language capabilities (or lack thereof) possessed by migrant accountants is backed up using “evidence” such as the low success rate for ex-foreign student applications into one of the Big 4’s entry level program.
In the current “skills shortage” debate this almalgamation of technical accounting skill and English language fluency to be one and the same is something that happens time and time again and is a point that the original people2people analysis strove to highlight. There must be a clear distinction between technical accounting skill and English language fleuncy. With many multinational organisations moving their shared service accounting teams to non english speaking countries this should show that language fluency and technical accounting skill are not one and the same.
One should be careful of tarring all overseas accountants with the same brush. From working in recruitment we can definitely say that yes some candidates really do need to brush up on their language abilities but we can also say that we have met some extremely skilled candidates from non-English speaking countries who have shown that they can do an very good job.
Anyone who has worked in a non-English speaking country will know that the language demands are high in a professional environment and most of the time our hosts are quite tolerant of our butchering of their mother tongue, in fact they are normally quite impressed that we’ve made the effort to try to learn their language. Why are we so intolerant here?
As the effects of the impending mass Baby Boomer retirement are felt (to be looked at in an upcoming entry) again we emphasise the main claim in people2people’s original analysis. The “skills shortage” misnomer highlights the wrong needs.
Zichuan Lim
Consultant
