Accounting Education Gap

The aim of this project focuses on the expectation gap between the skills and readiness that Swedish accounting graduates possess and those expected of them by their future employers.

There is an increasing criticism that accounting education in universities has not kept up with the pace of fast-changing demands that accounting profession is facing in today’s dynamic business environment. Such a gap can constitute points of tension between university education and employers regarding the relevance of university accounting education and may result in decreasing enrolment in accounting programs in higher education. Using hand-collected interview data, we empirically examine the gap between accounting education and accounting employment. We conducted eight semi-structured interviews with accounting graduate new hires who have completed university accounting programs within the past three years to gain insight on their experience of work readiness, perceptions of the challenges and benefits stemming from accounting degrees, and perceptions of how the skills they learned at universities connect with demand for their work. The actual first-hand experiences of accounting graduates with entry-level positions are particular useful as the graduates initially rely on the knowledge and skills they acquired from accounting education to perform their job tasks. We use previous literature on what knowledge and skills are considered important for accounting new hires to develop a framework focusing on work readiness for accounting graduates.

Grounded in theory and the results of these interviews, our analysis shows that although graduates employees in general feel that they have acquired some hard skills to start their position, they do meet challenges which they wish that they learned more. They also feel that accounting education has provided them with some soft skills although they are not always clearly addressed in the accounting curriculum.