Making Community College Transfer Pathways Add Up for Accounting Students

With looming baby boomer retirements and an increased demand for financial accountability across all types of organizations, California is starving for accountants. Projections indicate a need to fill over 50,000 accounting positions between 2008 and 2018. One way to prepare workers who can meet this demand includes supporting community college students pursuing transfer and completion of a bachelor’s degree in this discipline. Nearly three quarters of California’s students start their higher education journey in one of the state’s 112 community colleges. Many of these learners aim to cash in on the promise of the “2+2” system put forth in the master plan for higher education, completing affordable general education and lower-division major courses before transitioning to one of the state’s public universities to finish their degree.

The RP Group designed this document for those engaged in building the accounting workforce in California, including community college and university educators and employers. We present this brief as a work in progress to be finalized after conversations with these stakeholders. We intend for this document to:

• Share information discovered about accounting transfer through our study
• Facilitate discussions with those involved with accounting programs to augment and refine this research
• Promote a dialog about what the findings mean and how they can be used