Student perspective on skills needed in the accounting profession: a review of studies

This paper has been written based on surveys published in the foreign literature discussing student perception of the importance of competencies and skills needed in the accounting profession. While working towards the accomplishment of the above task we: (a) reviewed and categorised the subject-matter literature on accounting education, (b) discussed the methodology applied to analyse the surveys, (c) investigated into selected surveys on student perceptions of the importance of competencies and skills needed in the accounting profession, and (d) formulated conclusions. Generally speaking, two main conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. Firstly, the comparison of the subject-matter literature is difficult because the importance of skills is tested against a wide variety of methods plus the scope and type of the skills included in these studies vary often to a substantial degree. Secondly, despite the above-mentioned limitations, surveys suggest that students realise that nowadays technical bookkeeping skills are not enough to work in accounting. They know they need other skills in the field of communication, teamwork, decision making, analytical and logical thinking, professional demeanour, as well as a solid value system and interpersonal competences.