Irish accountancy bodies are boosting their marketing budgets in a bid to recruit people to their training programmes, it has been claimed.
Ronan O'Loughlin, director of communications and marketing at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI), told the Irish Times that there is a great deal of competition between organisations.
The ICAI has an ad spend of 220,000 euros (£157,000) and is taking its marketing efforts to the television for the first time this year.
Meanwhile, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants has reportedly increased its ad spend budget four-fold.
Mr O'Loughlin said that accountancy's recognition as a "basic business qualification" is strengthening the sector.
He told the newspaper: "The days when it was viewed as a career for bean counters is gone and there is intense competition between the various accountancy bodies for member firms and students."
Last week, the ICAI's director of representation and technical policy welcomed remarks by internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy.
The commissioner discussed the sector's contribution to the creation of the single European market and the world's economy as a whole.
Aidan Lambe of the ICAI noted that the European accounting sector is currently responsible for "a series of initiatives" along those lines.
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