Graduates seek security in government jobs

Aspiring accountants are looking to the public sector for job security as interest wanes in the troubled banking sector following the global financial crisis.

Graduates searching for work in the finance sector are increasingly enrolling in courses aimed at public sector positions, the Financial Times reports.

Enrolment in the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's main award, which is sponsored mainly by public sector employers, is up 20% on the year.

CIPFA's director of education and training, Adrian Pulham, told the newspaper there remains a need for skilled financial managers to manage policies brought in during the recession.

`If history can be any guide, the last two recessions demonstrated that at a time of [relative] contraction in public spending, you actually need not necessarily more, but at least an equivalent number of highly skilled financial managers to manage the process,' he said.

Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales executive director Raymond Madden told the FT that graduates are being attracted by the relative security of a government job, considered to be: `a safer haven than being at an investment bank'.

Read the full Financial Times story: Accountancy scheme becoming popular