SAIPA accredited
We are a SAIPA Accredited Training Centre, registration number ATC037. Your learnership with us counts in full towards registration as a Professional Accountant (SA).
Careers
Start your accounting career with us.
We train the next generation of accounting and tax professionals through a three-year SAIPA learnership, working on real client engagements from day one. Twenty-seven of our trainees are registered SAIPA members today.
The programme
Learn the profession by practising it
J&M is a SAIPA Accredited Training Centre, registration number ATC037. Our three-year learnership gives you hands-on practical work across financial reporting, taxation, auditing and management accounting, on real client engagements, under registered professionals.
You do not start at the deep end. Trainees climb a ladder from the more straightforward work to the more difficult, led by more senior learners, then managers, then the partners. By the time you write the Professional Evaluation examination you have done the work, not just read about it.
Our first trainee started her learnership in 1995. In 2003 one of our trainees was trainee of the year. In 2016 a trainee took first place in the PE examination, and in 2021 we took both third and fourth place in the top ten. We only take on one or two trainees a year, and 27 of the people we have trained are registered SAIPA members today.
27
Trainees we have taken through to registered SAIPA membership, from our first in 1995.
Where it leads
Two of our five shareholders started here as trainees
Henrieke Coetzee joined us as a trainee in February 2000 and became a member of the practice in March 2004. Bertus le Roux joined as a trainee in March 2007 and became a shareholder in March 2012. Neither of them was promised that at the start. They earned it, and the route is still open.
Our training has a lineage too. Jan Oosthuizen, one of our founders, was the first overall evaluator for our SAIPA Accredited Training Centre. Henrieke, who came through the programme herself, has held that role since January 2022. The person assessing you came up the same way you are about to.
Three years, graded
Three years of practical work, starting with the more straightforward engagements and building to the complex ones. You are supervised by senior learners, then managers, then the partners. It ends with the Professional Evaluation examination, a four-hour paper that tests what you have actually done.
What we look for
Someone who works well in a team, keeps their head under pressure, goes at a problem rather than around it, and can explain a number to a client in plain language. Diligence and integrity are assumed. The academic requirements are below.
Entry requirements
What you need before you apply
- A relevant degree. A BCom or equivalent qualification containing Financial Accounting 3, Taxation 2, Auditing or Internal Auditing 2, Corporate Law 1 or Commercial Law 2, and Management Accounting 2.
- A place at an accredited training centre. That is us. We are SAIPA ATC037.
- Three years. The learnership runs for three years, ending with the SAIPA Professional Evaluation examination.
The institute
The South African Institute of Professional Accountants
SAIPA offers structured professional training programmes and learnerships that produce qualified Professional Accountants (SA), combining a formal tertiary qualification with practical workplace experience. It is one of only two South African accountancy bodies holding full membership of the International Federation of Accountants.
A short history of SAIPA
The Association of Commercial and Financial Technicians of Southern Africa was established in 1982 and was the forerunner of SAIPA. The Close Corporations Act of 1984 opened the door to Accounting Officers, and the association applied for recognition as a professional body in November of that year. It was renamed the Institute of Accounting Technicians of Southern Africa in 1986, and the Institute of Financial and Commercial Accountants of Southern Africa in 1992.
In 1995 the institute gained full membership of the International Federation of Accountants, a status it still holds and shares with only one other local body. The SAQA Act of 1998 made the designation a recognised qualification in its own right. Research showed that a degree and practical training together did not assure competency, so in 2003 the institute set its first Professional Evaluation examination, obliging prospective members to demonstrate a baseline competency before admission. That examination is still a rite of passage.
After a brief period as the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, it became the South African Institute of Professional Accountants in 2006, with Professional Accountant (SA) as its signature designation. In 2011 SAIPA became a founding stakeholder and permanent board member of the Pan African Federation of Accountants. When COVID-19 struck in 2020, SAIPA moved its education and assessment platform online almost overnight.
Beyond the PE examination, SAIPA runs an online Independent Review course covering international standards, engagement planning, evidence gathering and financial reporting under the Companies Act. Many of our trainees have passed that certification within a month or two of writing their PE.
How to apply
Send us an email
If you are close to finishing your degree and want a three-year learnership with us, email your application to tax@jmoosthuizen.co.za. Send your CV, your senior certificate and a record of your academic progress.
We start looking as early as September each year for the person who will join us the following January.
Applications are handled by email only. This website has no application form and no upload: nothing you send us is collected, processed or stored by this site. Your application goes straight to our mailbox.
Questions first?
Want to ask something before you apply?
If there is anything you would like to know about training with us, you are welcome to get in touch. We would rather answer a question now than have you wonder.