Innovations in Ernst & Young Global Limited (EY) Internship and Education Program

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Ellen Glazerman, Executive Director of the Ernst & Young Foundation and America’s Director University Relations of EY, presented to NASBA Annual Meeting attendees on an innovative CPA candidate internship program, developed by EY, that allows students to close the 150-hour education requirement. Her agenda covered many facets of the program, including the environment, Career Path Accelerator elements, program design and the Career Path Accelerator pathway.

To begin, Glazerman explained the challenge: affordability and accessibility of the accounting profession for those who want to be CPA-eligible. Her solution is the EY Career Path Accelerator. EY is currently very interested and focused on helping people come through the CPA pipeline with the 150-hour requirement in place. The program is focused on candidates coming to EY without a master’s degree, who seek to acquire the 150-hours in a nontraditional manner.

The program contains a number of components, including being affordable (need based financial aid for the program is available through the Ernst & Young Foundation), allowing students to jumpstart their career, offering appropriate and rigorous content, students gaining targeted skills and candidates obtaining credits that are accredited and portable. The EY Career Path Accelerator allows EY interns, who are not pursuing a master’s degree, to earn their additional credit hour requirement for CPA licensure by leveraging EY’s relationship with Hult International Business School.

The program does not compete with university accounting programs, as it does not include any accounting hours. In fact, EY emphasizes to candidates that they must get their accounting hours through their undergraduate institution. Rather, the program focuses on targeted skills, the business and elective hours. When a student begins the program, they must sign-up for one of three credit packages. To be eligible, students must have completed or will have completed all accounting course requirements to sit for the Exam, made the decision to not get a master’s degree and are responsible for knowing and obtaining all state requirements to sit for the Exam. Included in the program is learning and assessments, a winter or summer internship and a Capstone project. To learn more about EY’s internship program, visit https://www.ey.com/en_us/careers/internships.