Perpetuating the species - In My Opinion - raising profile of internal auditing - outreach to students - Brief Article - Column

Internal Auditor, Dec, 2001 by Victoria S. Escalera

INTERNAL AUDITING HAS BEEN A GREAT CAREER PATH FOR ME, but it's a wonder I stumbled across it. I had never even heard of the profession until I graduated from college; "internal auditor" was neither in my universe of experience nor on my guidance counselor's list of possibilities. After recently hearing about a decade-long decline in the number and quality of accounting majors at my alma mater and seeing a thinner pool of candidates this year than when I last recruited audit staff, I've been worrying about who will be available to do my job in 20 years and what we've been doing, individually and as a profession, to ensure the next generation of internal auditors. In my view, we need to increase our efforts by directing more attention toward audit education.

In general, we need to raise awareness about the profession and emphasize the excitement of internal auditing to prospective practitioners. We can begin with very young audiences and visit children's classrooms to represent auditing as an interesting and useful career. There's plenty of drama in the organizational dynamics, operations, and frauds that auditors encounter, and young people may find these qualities intriguing. In addition, we should emphasize that our work is not only exciting, but it's also compatible with other life goals such as providing a service to society or raising a family.

At the college level, auditors should help nurture the supply of good students to college accounting programs and increase their exposure to the profession. Most internal auditors come from undergraduate degrees in accounting, so any decline in the pool of accounting majors should be as much concern to our profession as it is to public accounting. Internal auditing has an added appeal, however, because the Certified Internal Auditor credential requires neither the rigid curriculum of accounting courses nor the fifth year of study that students seeking to become certified public accountants must take. Relatively few internal auditors come from a liberal arts background as I did, but there's untapped potential there, too. We should try to attract more students to the field who study psychology, economics, and other disciplines that foster critical thinking and analytical skills.

As for audit-specific curriculum, the profession would certainly benefit from college courses devoted to the remarkable variety of internal auditing and consulting opportunities that now exist. Too few faculty members present these career paths positively to their students. But as alumni, community leaders, and employers, we can advocate the development of specialized auditing electives and introductory courses about the intersection of auditing with every field from art to zoology, and we can sponsor the creation of these courses with donations and offers to guest lecture.

Making an impact won't be easy, but to ensure internal auditing remains a viable profession, we must appeal to the next generation of potential auditors. Getting involved at the educational level will not only help perpetuate the profession, but it will also ensure that internal auditing continues to evolve and grow.

To comment on this essay, e-mail the author at vescalera@theiia.org. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.