Integrating Employability Competencies: A Framework for Accounting Education
1.Adel E. Ahmed,2.Ghaleb A. El Refae,3.Sobhy M. Elkhatib.
Abstract:
The world of work has changed significantly over the last few years, and a degree is no longer enough to secure graduate employment. The accounting profession worldwide has come under scrutiny in the last decade as a result of a series of high-profile corporate failures changing technology and globalization of the world economy. Higher education providers are under considerable pressure from policymakers, students and employers to ensure that graduates emerge from higher education ready for the labor market. Employers are often looking for skills and competencies that go beyond the degree qualifications. While the education may make the student eligible to apply for a job, but to be successful in the role, the student will need to exhibit a mix of competencies: „employability competencies. The Universities should be committed to enhancing the employability of all students, undergraduate and postgraduate, in order to enable them to compete and flourish in a competitive, fast-moving knowledge-based economy. Also, the accounting courses should be helping the students to develop a wide range of employability skills through the extracurricular schemes available to help them to develop the employability skills further. This means that the specialist, technical skills associated with different roles may be less important than the ‘soft skills’ that can be transferred between different jobs and different employment sectors. The 21st Century brings many challenges and opportunities for the accounting profession for both developed and developing nations. One of these challenges is to equip accounting graduates with a broader range of Employability Skills to meet the demands of employers and the profession. Both academics and practitioners have recognized the value and importance of employability skills of success in the competitive business world, and employability skills as being essential to long-term success for accountants. Therefore, accountants should possess non-technical skills and knowledge than ever before. The present study aims to propose a framework for integrating employability competencies into accounting curriculum by determining what and how the employability competencies should be integrated into accounting education.