Algonquin College partners with CPA Ontario Foundation for diverse future in accounting

Posted on Tuesday, September 12th, 2023

Algonquin College has partnered with the Chartered Professional Account (CPA) of Ontario Foundation to engage a more diverse group of students pursuing a career in accounting.

The CPA Ontario membership representing over 99,000 CPAs, has made a financial commitment to the CPA Ontario Foundation to support actions related to diversifying the profession.

The CPA Ontario Foundation’s mission is to support the educational success of aspiring CPAs from priority communities who face barriers entering the profession. This is facilitated through awards, bursaries, scholarships, and programming for students from Black, Indigenous, and other priority communities who are pursuing a career in accounting and finance.

The Foundation took a thoughtful and intentional approach to their mission, Mitchell said, explaining they knew real change required more than just financial support; it required a holistic strategy.

“Knowing that the CPA profession could benefit from a more diverse student pipeline, we’ve put different strategies in place, including looking at how the Foundation can facilitate connections into priority communities and develop unique and customized supports for these communities. We seek to identify other kinds of opportunities that could support students who want to work their way through to their CPA program,” Mitchell added.

“Our partnership with the Foundation will provide our students
with even greater opportunities for growth and success.”

–Mark Savenkoff, Vice-President, Advancement and Strategy, Algonquin College

As part of their strategy, the Foundation initiated a pilot project to create bursaries at ten post-secondary institutions, including Algonquin College. This project aimed to “test the waters” and build relationships with students eager to embark on careers in accounting, said Mitchell.

“We are proud to have been selected as one of the partner institutions by the CPA Ontario Foundation,” said Mark Savenkoff, Vice-President, Advancement & Strategy at Algonquin College. “Our institution has a long-standing commitment to diversity, and we have a track record of successfully preparing students for careers in accounting. Our partnership with the Foundation will provide our students with even greater opportunities for growth and success.”

At the college level the bursaries commitment from the CPA Ontario Foundation is $7,500 a year for two years. Individual bursary amounts will be determined and disbursed accordingly by each institution.

Why Algonquin specifically?

“It’s about creating a diverse mix of schools. We wanted to work with schools where accounting pathways were prevalent and where student populations were diverse,” Mitchell explained. “Ottawa has an interesting mix of diversity. When we worked with the CPA Ontario student recruitment team, Algonquin College was one of the schools that they had some good success in terms of accessing student interested in the CPA profession.”

“Inclusion and diversity are core values of Algonquin College,” assures Savenkoff.

“For now, it is a two-year commitment as we shape our program and gain some knowledge of needs of the Black and Indigenous communities,” said Mitchell.

The hope is to grow the program long term, she pointed out.

“We have two years commitment to start, and we are also in the midst of working on an actual comprehensive scholarship from the CPA Ontario Foundation, but that will take time,” said Mitchell. “We don’t want to rush it. We want to make sure the right mechanisms are in place. This first group of smaller bursaries that are coming out are literally our opportunity to build our knowledge base and start to develop some relationships.”

Mitchell added as the partnership moves forward through this year particularly, the Foundation will start to add supports for students receiving bursaries. This could include mentorship, access to career discussions with CPAs and some learning and development opportunities. We will be talking to faculty at partner institutions, and we really hope to be able to talk to the students themselves.

“I’m really interested in talking to the students. That’s a big part of being able to respond to the real barriers that students from priority communities face. I think there is a lot of value in having a direct conversation with the students and understanding their needs,” Mitchell said.

The Foundation hopes to offer students access to mentorship programs, webinars, and various resources to enrich their educational journey and prepare them for the road ahead. They are establishing Indigenous and Black community knowledge building groups to ensure that students’ unique needs are addressed.

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