Taking Stock - Accountant is brains behind 'drop everything and
Bringing healthy and financially aware children into the world has become the vogue among accountants. One has even launched a ‘drop everything and conceive’ internet messaging service so prospective parents can select the most auspicious moment to conceive their brood. The brains behind this service is Kirsty Oliver, formerly of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who has given up the musty world of accountancy to set up a website called webbaby.co.uk to provide information and services to prospective mothers and fathers. One rather unique service is the Ovulation Calculator which, when given the right data, formulates exactly the right moment to get biblical for a baby and sends an e-mail message to the user. It brings a whole new meaning to self-assessment. The interest in children continues with Big Five firm Ernst & Young, which has decided kids in the USA require its help and has set up a website (www.moneyopolis.com) to spread the good word about financial planning. Using wacky graphics and cartoon characters, the site reveals all about the arcane world of money to its junior audience. With the competition to find the best trainees hotting up year after year you can’t help but wonder whether this is an effort to do some early talent spotting – a sort of remote surveillance of who is good with figures. After all, there are growing concerns that American children leave school less proficient at maths than their European counterparts. A shortage of good accountancy candidates must be a real problem in the US so getting in early, and we mean really early, has got to be good for recruitment. ?: