How one CFO solved his talent shortage

Though macroeconomic turmoil and technological disruption have garnered most of the headlines lately, another evergreen issue is keeping CFOs from achieving their goals: lack of skilled finance and accounting talent.

A February 2026 Robert Half survey found that only 6% of finance teams have the skills they need to complete critical projects. More than half (53%) of finance and accounting hiring managers surveyed said that skills gaps were more pronounced than they were a year ago, while 57% said they needed to upskill staff. Hiring also persists as a problem: In a June 2025 survey by Personiv, 87% of finance leaders said there was an accounting shortage, up from 63% in 2020.

But one CFO may have found a solution. Paul Young, CFO of Liberty Bank, combined apprenticeships with a job rotation program to give staff the skills they need to grow with the financial institution. Word about the programs has spread locally, he said, and it’s strengthened Liberty’s brand as an employer. He’s recently received over 100 résumés for an open apprenticeship position. Plus, the initiative has boosted retention: Not one of the employees who’s gone through the apprenticeship program has left the bank, Young said.

An upskilling program: Young joined Liberty Bank, a community bank with more than 50 branches in Connecticut and Massachusetts and assets of around $8 billion, as CFO in 2019. He found that employees “didn’t have the skill sets that were needed for us to really be a top-performing bank,” he told CFO Brew. He found himself having to hire from outside and that it could take six months to fill an entry-level job.

In 2022, as a member of the AICPA and CIMA’s Future of Finance advisory group, he learned about a new apprenticeship program from the associations called the Registered Apprenticeship for Finance Business Partners. The program combined on-the-job training, mentoring, and coursework aligned with the Chartered Global Management Accountant Finance Leadership Program, and participants could take case-study exams to earn the CGMA designation. Young arranged for Liberty Bank to take part in the program’s first year, with an initial group of eight apprentices.

Though all apprentices work for the bank, some of them do not have traditional accounting backgrounds, Young said. One, for example, was a military member, and another a psychology major.

That’s one strength of the apprenticeship program, Barry Payne, regional vice president for the Americas at the AICPA, told CFO Brew. It can “maybe shift the paradigm a little bit, and say, ‘You don’t necessarily need to hire people that you’ve always hired,’” he said.

Young also started a rotational program at Liberty, whereby bank employees work for stints in different areas within the CFO group, including accounting, treasury, enterprise project management, procurement, and FP&A.

Candidate story: Word of mouth about the program spread through the company. Caitlin Domina, an accountant working for the bank, wanted to join the apprenticeship program. She was intrigued by the prospect of earning the CGMA credential, she told CFO Brew, and she also liked the fact that it taught skills she didn’t get much exposure to as an undergraduate in accounting.

“As I talked to my peers, I saw that it wasn’’t just the technical skills that you would usually expect from a program like this,” she said. “They were touching on leadership and people and digital skills that finance professionals really need today.”

Domina, now a financial analyst for the bank, recently beat out more than 2,500 other students to earn joint first place on the CGMA Management Case Study Exam for the November 2025 exam period. She plans to stay at Liberty long-term, moving horizontally throughout the organization and then upward in FP&A, she said.

Lessons learned: The apprenticeships have become part of Young’s longer-term talent strategy. Former apprentices, like Domina, were promoted into open roles, he said, “and then we want to backfill with apprentices at an entry level,” he said.

The mentors that participate in the program can get as much from a program as mentees do, said Payne. “They’re learning some key skills as well about how to help and aid someone’’s development,” he said, adding that’s crucial in accounting, where the leap from individual contributor to leader can be large.

Young said having a culture supportive of the apprenticeships is important. For instance, he advised CFOs to celebrate milestones. He brings up apprentices’ accomplishments at team meetings, he said, and introduces them to high-level executives at the bank. They also receive spot bonuses when they pass different levels of the CGMA exam, he said.

Concepts like the apprenticeship program prove that CFOs have more options than hiring from outside, Payne said. “Look at different operating models for staffing,” he said. “And I think that’s the one big headline that CFOs are learning. You’ve got to grow your own.”