A Look into Accounting: Discovering the Gaps Between Educational Insights and Career Expectations

It is inherently difficult to measure how well college graduates are prepared for the their careers. Part of being prepared rests as a responsibility to the student. However, it also becomes the responsibility of the institution to provide an education that gives the student a holistic understanding of their career. The focus here is on the topic of accounting as taught at universities. Although there has been significant research conducted to improve the education of accounting as a principle, the facet that has long been ignored is teaching the subject in preparation for realistic career expectations instead of meeting obsolete standards. A point of emphasis is the hands-on experience that students in the field experience prior to graduation: are they truly grasping an understanding on what the responsibilities of accountants entail? Reading a driving manual is no doubt important, but it is not until the individual gets behind the wheel that the actual learning takes place; everything else that was read is merely memory. This research paper will explain why it is important for universities to develop a more precise curriculum for accounting that provide students with the background needed to begin their careers and stress the importance, of and assess the impact, of a hands-on working experience prior to graduation.

Accounting as currently taught at Universities
There is no comparison in the methodologies of teaching accounting – a technical subject – with other subjects such as history or philosophy. These subjects teach what is fact and many of the concepts have largely remained static. On the other hand, the field of accounting develops on a continuing basis. The Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) implements new updates (ASUs) as problems arise – nuances that over time change the field. In the classroom, however, the same topics tend to be covered year after year because they are principles to the field. This has created a gap between educational knowledge and accounting practice. This widening gap is essentially the result of employer expectations and classroom learning (Dombrowski, Smith, 2013). A reason for this, is that there is the curriculum in practice that focuses on “textbook” accounting, which is very different than accounting as practiced in the real world and largely correlated with professors who do not have work experience in the field (aside from teaching the subject) and thus are unable to link theory and practice (AICPA, 2013 & Johnson 2014, pg 110). In addition, so that universities provide a comprehensive education and exposure to students regarding their studies, curriculum should adopt hands-on internships in the field. Not only do these internships stimulate practical learning about accounting, they also give an insight as to what the realistic expectations and level of knowledge is once students enter the workforce and provide a realistic view of the rapidly changing technology and demand – a factor that is learned empirically and is intrinsically part of the work (Alvarado 2012 & Zauwiyah 2015).

New adoption of curriculum
In order to meet the demands of the field and create adequately prepared accountants, universities should implement a curriculum that integrates items readily used by accountants such as technological and computer programs, bring about recent changes in the field into the classroom, and provide obligatory internships in the field. Accounting firms are utilizing the most up to date software to conduct audits, count inventory, and prepare financial statements – software that has made manual accounting obsolete and changed the course of the field. In order to minimize the learning gap that students have upon graduation in realization of these programs and techniques, universities should integrate them into the classroom and provide real world practice. By using practical technology in the classroom, universities can provide market-driven curricula and content for students that changes over time to meet requirements of the accounting profession (Dombrowski, 2013). This can be done most effectively by professors who have practical working experience in the field; thus, they can provide and insight as to the realities of the field. Therefore, it is beneficial for universities to require relevant work experience aside from teaching – they must be able to translate between theory and practice (Johnson, 2014). Teaching the subject based on a textbook is not difficult, however, that leads to the evident reality that the old way of teaching is increasingly irrelevant to the modern duties of Certified Public Accountants (Grumet 2001). Intrinsically part of a well rounded degree in accounting, schools should also provide internship experience for their students by networking with accounting related firms. This step will serve as a gateway from college to the real world. Most importantly, it will fill in the gap that exists between what is taught in the classroom and what students will need to know by the time they start working. Johnson, who surveyed 16 professionals working in accounting, confirms this fact: the environment and material in a college classroom does not reflect an accountant’s work (Johnson, 2014)

Discord on curriculum integration
As professors may already know, it is very difficult to hone a skill or teach an ability. Competency integration of a curriculum thus, may become problematic because of the notion that college students are already effective communicators, are flexible at changing technology, and can analyze problems (Lawson, 2014). A question that requires posing is: do they know how to do it in context to their work? To clarify, students may be great at communication through teamwork, can they communicate effectively to a client or an external party? Can they balance multiple auditing platforms? These are legitimate issues that arise when students start off their careers – issues that could be minimized through implementation of an integrated curriculum in accounting pedagogy. Additionally, some universities do not offer internship opportunities because of they want maintain a distinction between academics and work; they seek to improve the classroom experience instead of adding to it. By not providing these opportunities, they are subjecting students to miss out on experiential learning that builds on foundational and accounting competencies (Lawson, 2014).