Closing the gap between accounting education and the workplace.

• Author: Nellen, Annette

The gap between what is taught in accounting in higher education and what is sought in practice has been documented multiple times since the Bedford Committee published its report in 1986 (American Accounting Association, Committee on the Future Structure, Content, and Scope of Accounting Education, "Future Accounting Education: Preparing for the Expanding Profession," Issues in Accounting Education, p. 168 (Spring 1986)). Yet little has been done in higher education to help close the gap. One reason for the lack of change in higher education is that accounting graduates have been a sought-after commodity. One could argue that if there really were a gap, employers would not continue to hire accounting graduates. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily a valid measuring stick for educational quality.

In 2000, Steve Albrecht and Robert Sack (Accounting Education: Charting a Course Through a Perilous Future (American Accounting Association 2000)) sounded a warning bell to accounting professors as the authors discovered that accounting graduates were not adequately prepared for employment. At that time, the demand for new accounting graduates was flat and began to decrease in 2001, providing support for their concern.

The warning bell was quieted when in 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, P.L. 107-204, was enacted, increasing the need for more accounting graduates. New regulations and a robust economy contributed to the need for accounting graduates. It was easy to think that higher education closed the gap. However, the accounting profession has always filled the knowledge gap with apprentice-based learning. Associates would obtain on-the-job training as they worked on lower-level tasks in preparation for becoming senior associates.

Since 2000, additional studies have reaffirmed the gap between the skills and competencies typically fostered by higher education and what is needed in the real world (see 36 Issues in Accounting Education (Fourth Quarter 2021) for supporting articles). As a result, the gap is now fully apparent as accounting firms look for nonaccounting graduates to fill their ranks. The knowledge gap is widening as the lower-level tasks traditionally done by accounting associates are automated. New staff are expected to do reviewer-level work as soon as they start, without having the traditional apprenticeship experience the firms provided. Nonaccounting graduates are helping firms automate more business processes. These graduates with different skill sets can learn the accounting work and layer in their technology knowledge to help the firm. This situation raises the question: Will accounting professors embrace the charge of closing the gap and change, or will they blissfully ignore the gap?

A solution to help close the gap

Many accounting professors are aware of the gap, and the common solution is incorporating a case into a course to help students apply their learning in a real-world setting. Many case ideas have been shared in this column as well as in other publications. A tax course in the United States followed a similar format, and the professor noticed that even though the students had learned tax rules and financial concepts necessary to solve a complex problem independently of one another, when they were asked to bring those rules...