This article first appeared in Accountancy South Africa September 2025 edition

By Waldek Wasowicz, CEO, PKF South Africa & Managing Partner, PKF Octagon

The accounting, advisory and finance professions in South Africa stand at a pivotal moment. They face a persistent skills shortage at a time when demand for technically competent and ethically grounded professionals are on the rise.

If we are serious about filling this gap, the focus needs to shift from short-term fixes toward talent sustainability. And firms have a uniquely influential role to play in this journey.

Talent sustainability will require more support throughout the education ecosystem, not just when graduates begin their journey toward professional accreditation.

Creating Access, Opening Doors

Moving to a world of talent sustainability is not a compliance checkbox; it is a national imperative. Learnerships, graduate internships, and bursary partnerships with tertiary institutions are not just talent strategies—they are social investments.

Sustainable growth means equipping graduates with the support systems to succeed long-term, through mentorship, leadership development, and exposure to real client work. It means helping learners believe that they are not only invited to sit at our table but that they belong there too.

Moving the needle to achieving true talent sustainability requires working with more schools to offer guidance at a key juncture for young people making life choices. A good example of this is setting up focused training incubators, where individuals with the aptitude are given additional support and guidance on their future career paths. They are given more hands-on advice on what their role entails and what they need to do to make their career choice a success.

Collaboration between firms and schools to provide guidance around strategic growth opportunities is vital too. For instance, with increasing demand for impartial, trusted audits that flag irregularities such as fraud or misstatement, guiding upcoming CA’s to take the extra step in becoming registered auditors would be a mutually beneficial move.

Building the Profession We Want to See

As mid-sized firms, we are ideally placed to serve as laboratories of innovation for the profession, testing new models of training, hybrid work, and technology integration that reflect the evolving expectations of the next generation. We are close enough to the ground to understand what’s working—and bold enough to reimagine what’s possible.

In reality, what we’ve seen is that apart from negative employment numbers in general in SA, especially for the youth, the demand for professional services in South Africa is on the rise due to the increasing complexity of business operations.

Technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition – individually and in combination, are among the major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labour market by 2030, says WEF's Future of Jobs Report.

Notably, more than 60% of businesses operating in South Africa view skills gaps as a key barrier to achieving meaningful transformation by 2030. Additionally, over 31% cite the inability to attract skilled talent as a major obstacle to future growth.

This confirms why it is becoming so important to ensure training programmes incorporate knowledge of current trends and issues, including digital acumen and emerging technologies. To equip professionals with the skills needed to navigate these changes effectively and ensure a sustainable pipeline of professionals that can match modern, complex demands.

The Call to Lead

Now is the time for mid-sized firms to lead with intent. By empowering the next generation of accountants and auditors, we are investing in the future of our country—and of the profession itself.