Abstract
The role of chartered accountants in commerce has radically changed over the last decade. Regrettably, tertiary accounting education has not been able to keep up with these changes, resulting in a gap between the skills taught by universities and the skills required by commerce. To reduce this gap, SAICA issued the Competency Framework in 2010 which requires, in addition to the technical knowledge that chartered accountants are best known for, pervasive skills that all chartered accountants should possess upon entering the profession. However, the integration of these pervasive skills with the technical core subjects taught to accountancy students is limited. This article investigated whether one of the listed pervasive skills (namely competency in information and information technology) can successfully be integrated with a technical core subject (namely financial accounting) in such a way that the technical knowledge of the student is improved due to the integration. A Microsoft Excel consolidation model was created and presented to students to complete. Formal assessments and a questionnaire were used to determine whether the completion of the Microsoft Excel consolidation model, affected students’ performance. The results showed that the completion of the consolidation model improved students’ understanding of financial accounting.
Highlights
The role of chartered accountants (CAs) in commerce has changed dramatically over the last few years and long gone is the label that CAs are dull ‘bean counters’ or auditors
The objective of this study is to provide evidence as to whether pervasive skills can be successfully integrated with technical core subjects, in a manner that improves students’ technical knowledge, as believed by South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)
To answer the first research question, the results from the written assessments as well as those from the questionnaire were used. This made it possible to draw conclusions on whether the completion of the consolidation model had an effect on students’ performance on group statements as measured by using conventional assessment methods and by investigating students’ perceptions of their performance
Summary
The role of chartered accountants (CAs) in commerce has changed dramatically over the last few years and long gone is the label that CAs are dull ‘bean counters’ or auditors. Numerous studies have explored this gap that exists between accounting education and the expectation that the accounting profession in general and employers have with regard to the knowledge and skills that CAs should possess upon entering the profession (De Lange et al, 2013; Hesketh, 2011; Bui & Porter, 2010; De Villiers, 2010). To address this gap the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) developed the Competency Framework, in 2010. At the end of the term the topic is assessed with a formal written test that makes up approximately 28% of their class mark
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