Frances Gong, Regional Manager of CPA Australia, offers careers advice for Chinese accounting and finance students.

Frances Gong, from CPA Australia’s Shanghai Office, visited the campus to address Chinese accounting and finance students from the School of Business, Management and Economics (BMEc), in Mandarin.

About the speaker

Frances Gong is Regional Manager of one of the world’s largest accounting bodies, CPA Australia. Having more than 12 years of experience in business development, she has worked for multinational companies such as STA Travel, Walt Disney and CPA Australia.

In her current role, she is responsible for tertiary engagement with accredited universities by CPA Australia in East & Central China, as well as working with overseas universities to provide career support to Chinese returning graduates in accounting and finance industry. Her portfolio also covers office operation including branding, social media, human resource and finance.

The presentation

During the presentation, Frances told students about the Chinese job market for accounting graduates, the skills employers want from their accounting graduates and the key skills students need to develop while studying.

Accounting is generally viewed as a technical and mathematical area but Frances gave information from employers to show that, while students require technical expertise in accounting, they also value critical thinking, teamwork, personal initiative and the ability to fit into the organisational culture.

Overall, the students were able to:

• Gain a greater understanding of the job market trend in China for returning Chinese students
• Learn what necessary skills and experiences you’ll require to achieve strategic advantage and succeed in the China marketplace
• Gain career advice from CPA members in China for your career development
• Learn how the CPA Australia network can support you globally, particularly in the UK and China.

Students' thoughts on the event

The Chinese accounting students were surprised when non-Chinese University of Sussex staff introduced themselves in Mandarin. Students were visibly shocked, then delighted, when Tab Betts from TEL introduced Frances Gong in fluent Mandarin.

“We wanted the entire event to be in Mandarin,” Frances Miley explained. “Tab has been working with me on a range of teaching innovations in accounting. We are already seeing the benefit of these innovations with an improvement in the grades of all our students.

"It was critical for Tab to understand the importance of soft skills for accounting graduates so we can work with him to embed those skills throughout our accounting modules.”

Students found the event inspiring and found that a talk in Mandarin made it easier to understand a complex topic. 

“I definitely want to join CPA after this talk – very useful.” Jianzong Zhang, BSc Accounting & Finance

“Really useful. Having the talk in Chinese was helpful because this was quite complicated, so I understood all of the details.” Xiaoqian Ning, MSc International Accounting and Corporate Governance

“This was really helpful, more sessions like this would be good.” Hongcong Hong, BSc Accounting & Finance

BMEc working with CPA Australia

CPA Australia is one of the world’s largest professional accounting bodies and has a strong presence in Asia. Student membership is free to accounting students yet gives them access to accounting resources, networking activities and the opportunity to undertake internships. 

Senior lecturers in accounting Dr Frances Miley, who is also Course Director of the undergraduate accounting and finance degree, and Andrew Read are working with CPA Australia, the Careers Hub and Professional Services staff in BMEC to offer internships, placements and job opportunities in China to the university’s Chinese accounting graduates.

What's to come?

This is the first event held entirely in Mandarin for Chinese students. It was so successful that more events are already planned for the Chinese accounting students including link-up sessions with senior accountants from the public and private sector, and internship opportunities jointly facilitated by the university and CPA Australia.

In a collaboration that is radical and innovative in accounting, Frances Miley and Andrew Read are working with the Careers Hub, TEL and CPA Australia to create an accounting program geared towards a seamless transition from study to employment, which embeds employability and technical skills, and gives students strong links into the accounting profession from day one of their accounting studies.

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