The identification and discussion of strategies for implementing an IT skills framework in the education of professional accountants

Abstract

The accountancy and auditing profession operates within an environment that is changing at a rapid pace. It is the responsibility of the profession to ensure that all its members meet the expectations that the users of their services have of them. For professional accountants to remain relevant, they may have to change or adapt the services they offer to their clients. It is the responsibility of professional accountancy bodies to plan for these changes to ensure that members who join the profession possess the required knowledge and skills to be relevant and to remain relevant.One of the key drivers of change has been identified as the advances in information and communication technologies. Information and communication technologies have an impact on the role that accountants play (i.e. what they do), as well as on how they perform this role (i.e. how they do it).The aim of this article is to determine the perceptions of role-players at South African universities to identify strategies that can be employed by universities to ensure that students entering the profession as trainee accountants demonstrate the critical IT skills to be competent accountants in the South African environment.This research shows that there is a real sense within SAICA and academic circles of the importance of students acquiring a relevant set of IT skills through the integration of IT with the professional subjects. However, there is uncertainty about what these IT skills are and how it could be integrated with the professional subjects. It is therefore important that all the role-players understand and demonstrate the urgency to integrate IT skills with the knowledge acquired in the professional subjects to ensure that accounting students acquire the relevant and critical IT skills to be competent accountants within the South African business environment.