Built environment sector can draw inspiration from accountancy to attract more architects and engineers

A NEW task force aims to cement Singapore’s pipeline of architects and engineers – but to do so, it should consider mirroring the successful reforms in the Republic’s accounting sector and push for concrete improvements in young professionals’ pay.

On Sep 4, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee announced that the Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants has been set up to tackle industry concerns about whether enough young Singaporeans are joining architecture and engineering.

Lee noted that industry players also worry about whether remuneration is competitive and workplace practices are keeping up with other sectors.

The new task force aims to address these concerns and more, through moves in four key areas: enhancing the sector’s branding and visibility; transforming future workplaces; evolving built environment consultancy models; and promoting sustainable industry practices.

The authorities may be hoping to emulate their recent success in revamping another white-collar profession that has struggled with recruitment and remuneration: accounting.

Coincidentally or otherwise, the leaders of this latest task force – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah and Surbana Jurong chairman Chaly Mah – were also involved in a similar effort for the accounting sector.

They were members of the Accountancy Workforce Review Committee (AWRC), formed in 2023 to tackle chronic labour shortages and dispel the notion that the sector was “boring”.

Similar pains

Indeed, any accountant listening to Lee’s speech may have felt a tingle of deja vu, nodded vigorously, or even shed a tear in solidarity.

Many of the concerns raised by industry players in the built environment sector would also have been felt by accountants – until recently.

Over the past year-and-a-half, major moves have been made by government and non-government bodies alike to transform the accounting sector’s own pipeline of talent.

Many of these moves arose from a report by the AWRC, published in May 2024.

The report recommended higher starting salaries for accountants; a quicker route to attaining the national accountancy qualification; and further support for mid-career switchers.

In short order, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants rolled out an industry-specific salary guide and shortened the pathway for professional qualification.

The national accounting body has also committed millions of dollars into internationalising, partly in the hope of encouraging more foreign professionals to qualify for Singapore’s standards – and work for local firms.

Those efforts may have already started to bear fruit.

In recent months, big and small firms alike have raised starting salaries for new accountants to attract talent. And industry players told The Business Times that there has been an uptick in young professionals choosing to join the field.

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There are some broad similarities between the built environment and accounting sectors.

Climbing the career ladder requires professional qualifications – and attaining these can be a lengthy and tiring affair, where one has to juggle work and studies.

Common complaints are the long working hours and comparatively lower pay than other professions.

Perhaps these woes account for another commonality: fewer students. Enrolment has trended downwards for architecture and civil-engineering courses at Singapore’s autonomous universities – as has long been the case for accounting.

For instance, total enrolment in the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) undergraduate architecture programme was 623 in September 2023, down from 711 in 2014 and 660 in 2019.

For civil engineering, enrolment fell to 303 in 2023, down from 476 in 2014 and 520 in 2019.

NUS’ accounting programme has seen a similar trend, with enrolment down to 744 in 2023, from 961 in 2019 – though it was up from 760 in 2014.

This is even as total enrolment across all undergraduate courses at NUS in 2023 has risen 14.2 per cent since 2014.

At Nanyang Technological University, enrolment in the civil-engineering programme in 2023 was similar to that in 2020, even as total enrolment for undergraduate degrees rose.

Raising pay

But will the new task force’s focus areas be sufficient for the efforts to draw more undergraduates?

Of the four focus areas, two are clearly targeted at recruiting and retaining talent: enhancing the sector’s branding and visibility, and transforming future workplaces.

Details are scarce for now. Yet, enhancing the sector’s visibility may have little effect if prospective joiners do not like what they see. And improving its branding will not help if this is a purely cosmetic exercise, with no improvement of actual working conditions.

Similarly, transforming future workplaces should involve addressing common woes such as long hours, and not simply using more technology without alleviating workloads.

Above all, if there is one takeaway from the accounting sector’s talent drive, it is that higher wages undeniably help.

For all the talk about passion or other lines that interviewees might use on hiring managers, pay is likely to remain top-of-mind for many people – not least fresh graduates.

Yet companies in any sector – even large, well-established ones – will likely feel inertia when it comes to hiking salaries. In other words, they may not do so until they are forced to.

Soon after the AWRC published its recommendations on raising starting salaries, two of the Big Four accounting firms – Deloitte and KPMG – announced substantial pay hikes for fresh joiners.

In short order, the rest of the industry followed. Smaller firms have raised entry-level wages by up to 25 per cent this year, lest they lose out in the war for talent.

If the built environment sector’s task force can similarly flag this need, and if the sector’s big players take the lead, perhaps its talent woes will start to ease too.