Abstract
Nowadays, globalization, new economic challenges and innovations in information technologies (IT) influenced the role and domain of professional accountants. The current accreditation requirements and educational frameworks of the contemporary accounting profession emphasize the importance of broad ‘generic skills’. This research aims to fill the gap in studying generic skills in Egypt by examining the importance of generic skills in accounting education. The research results are consistent with the International Education Standard IES 3 and several studies, and highlighted the importance of five factors: intellectual and communication, interpersonal, creative ability, organization, research and analytical skills. Moreover, it is recommended that universities in Egypt should reevaluate their accounting education process and establish strong links with professional accounting firms.
Highlights
Nowadays, globalization, new economic challenges and innovations in information technologies (IT) have influenced the role and domain of professional accountants
Pathways Commission (2012), which was created by the American Accounting Association (AAA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to study the future structure
This research aimed to fill the gap existing in studying generic skills in Egypt by examining the opinions of accounting professionals and students regarding the importance of generic skills
Summary
Globalization, new economic challenges and innovations in information technologies (IT) have influenced the role and domain of professional accountants. Other accountants assist in compliance with tax and regulatory requirements and provide information reporting needed in dynamic business environment. One of the major objectives of accounting education is to provide competencies to students to have a successful professional life (Mcvay, Murphy, & Wook Yoon, 2008). 2017, Vol 7, No 2 of higher education for the accounting profession, highlighted that in order to be competent, accountants must have both technical knowledge and professional skills. The term generic skills has been widely used in the accounting education literature (Albrecht and Sack (2000);Kavanagh and Drennan (2008);Lin (2008); Jackling and De Lange (2009); Wells, Gerbic, Kranenburg, and Bygrave (2009); Bui and Porter(2010)). Abayadeera and Watty (2016:p149) define generic skills as those capabilities required by graduate accountants for employability and career advancement. Other authors De Lange, Jackling, and Gut (2006) referred to generic skills as the skills that capture transferrable qualities to suit the industry in which graduates work; these include but are not limited to, communication, team skills, leadership, problem solving, analytical and interpersonal skills
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