How UVU accounting students started earning before graduation

The accounting profession is undergoing several fundamental shifts. AI has redefined what firms look for in early-career talent, 73% agree that talent shortages are having a severe impact on their firm, and educators are stretched thin as they try to build new, relevant curriculum to keep pace with the rapidly evolving landscape.

With the implementation of AI to automate workflows and surface data insights, accountants are freed up to focus on client advisory services (CAS), the fastest growing sector in the profession. Now, firms are placing a premium on strategic thinking and sound judgment from day one. Intuit’s 2026 Accountant Technology Survey found that respondents ranked strategic judgment as their top hiring priority (38%), with AI fluency close behind (22%).

Building curriculum from scratch that keeps pace with current industry expectations and technological advancements takes an excessive amount of time and resources. And without it, the result is a generation of accounting graduates missing the specific skills for the CAS roles firms are actively hiring for, as firms report real strain: 77% say they’ve faced at least one hiring struggle in the past 12 months, and 56% say a new entry-level hire takes six or more months to become fully productive.

As the gap between classroom learning and real-world demands widens, students are left questioning whether their education is actually preparing them for future career success, and they need proof, not just promises, that it is.

Meet Brittany Brown — a CPA, CEO and founder of LedgerGurus, and Professional in Residence at Utah Valley University who led the pilot of Intuit’s Accounting Futures program. As an industry expert, Brown helped advise on the program’s design and content, and then tested it herself in her own classroom.

She wove the modern, Client Advisory Services-focused curriculum into her accounting courses, including Current Topics in Accounting and multiple levels of Small Business Accounting, giving students the chance to hone the strategic judgment skills now expected of them on day one in the workforce. Students conducted real client work in QuickBooks, and every student left her course with industry-recognized QuickBooks certifications. They also interfaced with real accounting professionals who brought their expert insights directly into the classroom.

Building on the learnings from the pilot and other leaders in the accounting space, Brown and Intuit co-developed the current curriculum that’s now accessible in the Accounting Futures Program. Brown led her students through the program, taking her students to the next level and ensuring they graduated with the experience, knowledge, and skills she looks for when hiring as a firm owner herself.

Bob Allen, Dean of the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University and previous president of the American Accounting Association, immediately saw the value in bringing the Accounting Futures program to his students and said the adoption involved a necessary curricular change. “We took a good hard look at certain topics that have been mainstays in accounting education for a long time, but if we’re doing things just for the sake of rigor, and they’re not helpful, then we have to rethink that as educators,” said Allen. “Many of our students are first-gen and non-traditional students who are looking for a head start into a professional career. Our mission is always student success and ensuring students graduate career-ready, with the professional skills that are immediately usable on the job. That’s why this program fits right in with our mission and objectives as a university.”

In Brown’s class, 50% of students signed their own client, or were offered an internship within the semester, and across three semesters at UVU, more than 250 students earned industry-recognized QuickBooks certifications. With the credentials and skills gained in this program, her students expressed that they were able to stand out after graduation, get hired, and start their careers with a fundamental understanding of how a small business accounting department actually runs. That means they’re not starting their careers at ground zero, hoping to catch up; they’re launching with a head start.

Because the curriculum is built around a case study model that deliberately builds in complexity, students master concepts as they go. Starting with troubleshooting, clean-up, and industry-specific techniques within QuickBooks, students build to take ownership of the financial statements they’re creating. Running in tandem, students earn their certifications throughout the semester as homework, watching videos, testing, and working through the certification platform outside of class to give them the same hands-on rhythm of doing, seeing, and touching the material at every stage.

To support coursework, UVU also hosted an optional, after-hours QuickBooks lab. Despite being a voluntary, ungraded offering, the lab exploded in popularity, outgrowing two rooms in a single semester, with many students using the time to work on their real client accounts.