9 April 2019

According to the Australian Government’s Job Outlook the number of Accountants grew very strongly over the past five years and is expected to grow further over the next five years: from 199,200 in 2018 to 207,200 by 2023. There are likely to be around 84,000 job openings over five years – that is about 16,800 a year.

Broken Hill resident, Jenneth Alcantara, who is about to complete a Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping with TAFE Digital is fulfilling a desire she’s had for a long time to become an accredited accountant.

Mrs Alcantara said, “When I emigrated from the United Arab Emirates to live in Australia eight years ago, I embarked on a business administration course which gave me a broad understanding of what career direction I wanted to take. I have always be interested in accounting, but was not given the opportunity to work in this role in Abu Dhabi, as my parents had different plans for me.”

Shortly after completing the business administration course, Mrs Alcantara became a mother and decided to continue her studies, this time enrolling in a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) with TAFE Digital, which is when she also started working as an Assistant Nurse at Southern Cross Care in Broken Hill.

“After four years, I enrolled to do a Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping online – it was a childhood dream of mine to become an accountant,” said Mrs Alcantara. “Southern Cross Care have been very supportive of my career ambitions and transferred me to the administration department where I first started working in reception, then trained to do rostering and am currently working for the finance team.“

Mrs Alcantara is now an Administration & Purchasing Officer with Southern Cross Care and she focuses mainly on working in accounts payable and payroll functions, while taking on additional responsibilities in purchasing.

“My career ambitions are slowly coming to fruition,” said Mrs Alcantara. “The flexibility of studying accounting and bookkeeping online suits my busy lifestyle perfectly as I can allocate appropriate amounts of time to my work, family and studies. I am able to learn at my own pace without too much pressure and to date have been able to complete assessments ahead of time.”

TAFE Digital is now accepting enrolments for hundreds of great online courses. For information please visit https://www.tafensw.edu.au/digital or phone 131 601.

Media contact: Bonny Gunn, TAFE Digital Media Business Partner. M 0417 134 048.