Profession Ready Initiative targets gaps in early-career CPA readiness

The AICPA on Monday launched the Profession Ready Initiative, a research-backed project focused on identifying and helping to develop the evolving set of skills that emerging and early-career CPAs need for success in an increasingly AI-driven marketplace.

The initiative, according to a news release, responds to a clear need: As the nature of the accounting profession’s work evolves, the profession must help emerging professionals identify and quickly develop essential skills while providing employers with frameworks and tools for building high-performing teams.

“The Profession Ready Initiative is pivotal to addressing one of the profession’s most pressing needs,” Sue Coffey, CPA, CGMA, the AICPA’s CEO–Public Accounting, said in the release. “We need to understand what it will take for the next generation of CPAs to thrive in an increasingly complex business world. Both emerging talent and the organizations that employ them want and need support to navigate this transformation successfully.”

The AICPA will study two critical career stages: aspiring CPAs at the entry level and licensed CPAs at approximately the four-year mark, capturing insights on current needs and how skill requirements will evolve through 2030.

Extensive research canvassing all corners of the profession begins today with the launch of the first of several surveys planned for 2026. Log your survey responses by Feb. 16.

Listening across the profession

The initiative’s research findings will be used to deliver key outputs in three areas:

• A skills framework to guide the training and development of emerging and early-career CPAs (defined as individuals at the four-year career mark);
• Learning solutions that use emerging technologies to help professionals quickly build their skills; and
• Teaching resources for universities.

The research, led by SkillEdge, will examine the roles that emerging and early-career CPAs perform, the skills required to excel, how job expectations align with education curricula, and where professionals need additional development support.

Throughout 2026, the AICPA will field surveys and convene focus groups and discussion sessions engaging thousands of practitioners, employers, educators, and other leaders. After the research phase, the AICPA will release a draft of its findings for public comment in 2027. Then it will publish final frameworks and resources designed to benefit employers, academics, and early-career professionals.

“This initiative is grounded in research, listening, and input. We’re engaging with aspiring CPAs and professionals across every area, from major firms to small practices, from corporate finance departments to government agencies, from community colleges to four-year universities,” said Lindsay Stevenson, CPA, CGMA, chief strategy officer for BPM LLP and chair of the Profession Ready Initiative Advisory Group. “This initiative is for you, and we need your input.”

A model for professional workforce transformation

The initiative will offer a road map that may help other professions grappling with similar challenges: how to prepare the next generation of talent when AI and other environmental factors are fundamentally changing the nature of work. It demonstrates how professions can lead workforce transformation rather than react to it.

“Through this initiative, we are creating a framework that will help young talent succeed throughout their careers, and help employers develop top-performing teams,” Coffey said. “Everyone invested in the future of the profession will benefit.”

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.