What Skills and Attributes Does an Accounting Graduate Need? Evidence from Student Perceptions and Employer Expectations

By Marie H. Kavanagh, L. Drennan. 2008

669 citations recorded by the source corpus.

For some years there has been much debate between various stakeholders about the need for accounting graduates to develop a broader set of skills to be able to pursue a career in the accounting profession. This study uses mixed methods to examine perceptions and expectations of two major stakeholders: students and employers. Findings indicate that students are becoming aware of employers’ expectations in terms of communication, analytical, professional and teamwork skills. Although employers are still expecting a good understanding of basic accounting skills and strong analytical skills, they are also requiring ‘business awareness’ and knowledge in terms of the ‘real world’. Both students and employers report that many of the ‘essential’ non‐technical and professional skills and attributes are not being developed sufficiently in university accounting programmes.

Subfields: Accounting, Management of Technology and Innovation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a2a22b9a343072197f1b09b5201af8bf9ca06dc

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Citations in the corpus

Business intelligence & analytics in management accounting research: Status and future focus (2018, background): “Therefore, as various reports and papers to date suggest, it is crucial that management accountants continue to develop their strategic, analytical, and technological skills if they are to become strategic partners with management (Kavanagh and Drennan, 2008; Pathways Commission, 2012).”
Employability skills, personal qualities, and early employment problems of entry-level auditors: Perspectives from employers, lecturers, auditors, and students (2016, methodology): “Due to globalization, changing technology, and a series of high-profile corporate failures, the attributes that are required of accounting professionals in today’s global business environment have changed significantly since early 1990s (Jones & Abraham, 2009; Kavanagh & Drennan, 2008).”
Professional skills required of accountants: what do job advertisements tell us? (2018, background): “However, the importance of individual skills varied for different groups of graduates/students, and educators and employers (see, for e.g. Howcroft, 2017; Kavanagh & Drennan, 2008; Lin et al., 2005; Tan et al., 2004; Wells et al., 2009; Yu et al., 2013).”
The expectation performance gap in accounting education: a review of generic skills development in UK accounting degrees (2016, methodology): “Groupings were also compared to those identified by Kavanagh and Drennan (2008) in their study of skills delivered as part of an accounting degree programme.”
WIL and generic skill development: The development of business students’ generic skills through work- integrated learning (2011, background): “Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1851169 WIL and generic skill development: The development of business students’ generic skills through work- integrated learning”