One accountant’s fight to ‘rebel against boring’
“Excruciating … the worst … the bane of my life,” is how Joyce Ong describes the mandatory continuing professional development courses Australia’s accountants are required to complete.
A former tax accountant, Ms Ong, who has purple hair and pens ballads about provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act, is on a mission to “reshape workforce education” and “rebel against boring”.
Tax Nuggets Academy co-founder Joyce Ong says accountants’ reputation for being boring is causing a talent shortage.
Her start-up, Tax Nuggets Academy, aims to gamify the “tedious” world of accounting professional development, which is dominated by established professional associations such as Chartered Accountants ANZ and CPA Australia that “have not been forced to innovate”.
Quality has suffered as a result, Ong says. “Learners are completely disengaged. They’re just doing it to tick a box.”
Games, quizzes and sound effects are incorporated into her online-only courses, which are run by individual practitioners in revenue-sharing arrangements. The most popular instructors can earn the most, encouraging innovation and creativity, according to the start-up’s founders.
Ms Ong says disruption is desperately needed in the profession, which is “undergoing the worst talent shortage it has ever faced, because people think that accountants are boring”.
“We’re really trying to change that perception by creating very engaging, fun content but also making the knowledge accessible to younger learners.”
Accessibility is major selling point for the start-up, which has raised $700,000 in seed funding. Subscription-based pricing begins at $40 per month, in contrast to traditional continuing professional development providers, which charge between $100 to $150
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