Apparently we need more accountants

[pongo]

6 minutes ago, Rushen Spy said:

Nothing except wage stagnation and lack of disposable income to save to pay for the courses. Do you have any clue how expensive accountancy training is? It's not just one course; it's loads of individual units, all costing an arm and a leg. Gone are the days when companies would pay -- it's easier for them to just employ someone already trained up from across.

You waste hours every week posting nonsense and whining here and on the social media.

You could spend that time studying to improve your employment prospects. Or working extra shifts to fund getting yourself ahead.

It's not up to government or business to make you more useful. It's up you.

[Roger Mexico]

17 minutes ago, pongo said:

You waste hours every week posting nonsense and whining here and on the social media.

You could spend that time studying to improve your employment prospects. Or working extra shifts to fund getting yourself ahead.

It's not up to government or business to make you more useful. It's up you.

I'm no particular supporter of @Rushen Spy. but this sort of response exemplifies an awful lot of what is wrong with the way things get discussed on the Island.  A general point about something (which may or may not be correct) is answered with a personal attack.  But it doesn't matter who makes a point (say about the availability and affordability of accountancy training), what matters is how true or not it is.

[Rushen Spy]

28 minutes ago, pongo said:

You waste hours every week posting nonsense and whining here and on the social media.

You could spend that time studying to improve your employment prospects. Or working extra shifts to fund getting yourself ahead.

It's not up to government or business to make you more useful. It's up you.

I was not talking about myself (my career is just fine) but the state of the economy in general. Also, I don't post anything on social media except on my private feed which is visible only to friends.

[Non-Believer]

Some Govt accountant recently worked out that the average local family only has a disposable £50 left at the end of the week after outgoings.

Perhaps doesn't leave much to pay to get qualified as an accountant?

[Rushen Spy]

4 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

Some Govt accountant recently worked out that the average local family only has a disposable £50 left at the end of the week after outgoings.

Perhaps doesn't leave much to pay to get qualified as an accountant?

More like, at the end of the month.

[thesultanofsheight]

26 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

Some Govt accountant recently worked out that the average local family only has a disposable £50 left at the end of the week after outgoings.

That looks to be the point of the thread. It is hard to believe that we can’t find money to help Manx people train as accountants but we can find the money to help accountants (who tend to already earn a good whack to start with) to move here instead. 

[Neil Down]

2 hours ago, The Dog's Dangly Bits said:

You clearly have no idea what becoming an Accountant involves.   You dont need any "real qualifications"?  

 

Two of the most stupid sentences seen on here in a long while...

[2112]

2 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

I would imagine it's quite a lot as they are all tagged "Destination Isle of Man" and there's even a separate category for them.  Presumably being gullible enough not to realise that this is paid-for tosh would be the main qualification for actually wanting to move to the Island.  But actually most people in their target market will only be too painfully aware of this sort of 'advertorial' as the London papers are perpetually clogged up with it.

A better question is "Why are they in the Isle of Man papers?".  Most of their readers are already here.  Some of the latest batch may be to try to attract back or retain those who might be back for Christmas etc, but they know what the place is like as well.  In reality this sort of guff is actually not aimed at publicising the Isle of Man but at publicising the Department of Enterprise.  "Look at all the work we are doing trying to bring people to the Island!" they are saying. 

This isn't new, but the less effective they are at what they are paid to do, the more time and money they seem to spend on self-publicity.

Finance Isle of Man are working with Locate Isle of Man, both trying to get more accountants to work here, and trying to get active high net worth inviduals. 
Locate.im are emphasising ‘active high net worth individuals’ as opposed to having money in the bank. 
Let’s look at this little strap line in detail - 

Skelly and Co had high net worth types who put their money where their mouth is, and lived to regret it.

Roy Tilleard - love him or loathe him he put his money where is mouth is and came up against Tynpotwald types, some jealous and some little jobsworths. Invested millions in a depressed run down area. Could be classed as active, but unfortunately came up against petty officialdom. Where is he now? The Channel Islands.

Raj Chatta - another marmite type who whatever the thoughts, put his money where his mouth is but sadly nothing got off the ground. Where is he now - another offshore jurisdiction! 
There are other HNWI types here, fingers burned for trying to invest in the economy - Morphett! 
 

If the policy is now to attract Active HNWI, does this mean that usual sensibilities go out of window? Or does common sense prevail with sensible compromises? 

[thesultanofsheight]

9 minutes ago, 2112 said:

Roy Tilleard - love him or loathe him he put his money where is mouth is and came up against Tynpotwald types, some jealous and some little jobsworths. Invested millions in a depressed run down area. Could be classed as active, but unfortunately came up against petty officialdom. Where is he now? The Channel Islands.

That’s a bad example. A lot of that was because he was a total cunt. 

[Non-Believer]

Where are the Barrowman/Mones these days? They waxed lyrical about the Island in their centre spreads when they moved here.

The pile is still up for sale isn't it?

[Annoymouse]

5 hours ago, The Orgozoid said:

Notwithstanding that we probably do why haven’t we been encouraging more students to do accountancy at the UCM or offering incentives to locals to re train in accounting rather than doing what we always do which is throw a shit load of money at people who don’t even live here to come here and get a job? We did the same with nurses years ago when we stopped training them locally. It does make you wonder what chance at all locals have of progression in the future Manx economy? 

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=52987

I wanted to do the course when it was taught at the business school, you could do it at evenings part time but you gained a ‘AAT’ qualification whereas all  jobs advertise for a ‘ACCA’ qualification this could only be gained working as a trainee accountant and those jobs were few and far between.

I believe MPES now offer the same course, for me it was too much of a gamble, it was/is a lot of money with no guarantee of a job, you become an accountant in name only, it’s like being signed off as an electrician without ever wiring so much as a plug.

[Annoymouse]

1 hour ago, Neil Down said:

Two of the most stupid sentences seen on here in a long while...

I think he means you don’t need qualifications to do the course, they offer a foundation course that has no real entry requirements.

[Uhtred]

Perhaps someone could ask Skelly how many accountants the six Chinese banks employ?

Meanwhile, perhaps this offers a clue to our accountancy problem:

 

[Derek Flint]

There are a lot of accountancy vacancies at present. Chris.Thomas has it down as a growth sector. 

[The Dog's Dangly Bits]

1 hour ago, Neil Down said:

Two of the most stupid sentences seen on here in a long while...

I doubt that . Irony alert.