Incorporating analytics into the tax curriculum.

• Author: Franklin, Mitchell

A recent survey from Deloitte Insights reports that 90% of CEOs are aware that digital technologies are forcing disruptive change and 70% of those say that their employees do not have the skills to adapt (Pelster et al., "Careers and Learning: Real Time, All the Time" (Deloitte 2017), available at tinyurl.com/t5m921u). This is not surprising since Deloitte also reports that the half-life of a learned skill is only five years, while those working in finance and accounting must learn new skills every 12 to 18 months.

At the same time, the length of a career now ranges from 60 to 70 years, and the average tenure in each job is only four to five years (Gratton and Scott, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity (Bloomsbury 2016)). Further, among Millennials, a key component of an employer's brand in the job marketplace is "the ability to learn and progress" as the career itself--rather than just a formal education--becomes "a journey for learning" (Pelster et al., "Careers and Learning: Real Time, All the Time"). In fact, formal education is becoming less and less relevant--the Pearson Global Learner Survey from September 2019 (available at tinyurl.com/v3az6yh) reported that half of Generation Z respondents surveyed think that a college education is not necessary to succeed in life, as they are more reliant on self-learning.

The importance of adapting techniques to more efficiently and effectively train students to succeed in the workplace today cannot be overstated. In addition to persistent questions about the value of higher education, the world is moving into what many are referring to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (see Mezzio, Stein, and Stein, "Robotic Process Automation for Tax," 228-6 Journal of Accountancy 18 (December 2019), available at tinyurl.com/uwby2jn). While the Third Industrial Revolution refers to the digital revolution that started in the 1950s, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is seen as a "fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres" (Schwab, "The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What It Means, How to Respond" (World Economic Forum 2016), available at tinyurl.com/hlah7ot). More than ever, emerging technology breakthroughs--which are now exponential rather than linear--will drive demand for employees who are skilled in those new technologies. Perhaps what is most frustrating to educators is that they do not yet know what those technologies are, so the task of adapting their teaching techniques seems overwhelming if not impossible.

However, adapting their teaching techniques does not necessarily require expertise in--or even knowledge of--those technologies of the future. What it does require is implementation of technology across the accounting and business curriculum (which is already needed for AACSB accreditation) and fostering a curiosity and desire for lifelong learning in students. In fact, for this fast-paced, ever-changing, technology-heavy environment, the World Economic Forum lists the top 10 skills needed for success as complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with others, emotional intelligence, judgment and decision-making, service orientation, negotiation, and cognitive flexibility (Gray, "The 10 Skills You Need to Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution" (World Economic Forum 2016), available at tinyurl.com/h683b8m). No one specific technology is listed here, and most educators would likely agree that these skills have been important for success in the workforce for decades.

This column discusses some techniques for developing these skills in a technology-heavy classroom environment, including tax courses as well as other accounting courses that students interested in pursuing tax will take as part of an accounting curriculum and a business degree. It also discusses the strategies being pursued by the Big Four firms to close this skills gap, and a sample of the resources available to educators. This column also shows that adapting teaching techniques and preparing students for the workplace of today and the future is not as daunting as it might seem. It does, however, require that educators work together to share resources with each other and partner with those in public accounting and industry to continue to adapt.

Analytics in the workplace

In this age of exponential growth in emerging technologies, two oft-repeated buzzwords in the accounting and business world are "big data" and "data analytics." While the overuse of these words can make them seem meaningless, big data and data analytics have had a significant effect on the job tasks and types of jobs available for accountants and the services they provide to clients. Big data is defined in the dictionary as "extremely large datasets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions," while data analytics is the analysis of these datasets using different technological tools to draw conclusions and make decisions. Andrew Bauer provides an excellent introduction and expansion of these concepts in a prior Campus to Clients column (Bauer, "Data Analytics: A High-Level Introduction for Accounting Practitioners," 48 The Tax Adviser 366 (May 2017), available at tinyurl.com/tjc7f4x).

The importance of analyzing information and data to draw conclusions is the same as it has been for decades. In fact, it is the availability and accumulation of data (aka big data) that has had such a profound effect on the accounting profession, as traditional means of synthesizing and analyzing information are not sufficient for the volume of data. Clients now provide their accountants with access to a whole database of transactions that would easily crash a system like Excel, so software tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Alteryx are now used to perform data synthesis and analysis. These are just three examples of new technology, and the technology used to perform this synthesis and analysis continues to evolve, and each new option provides yet more opportunity for analysis and insight. As a result, clients and their shareholders expect that accounting professionals will keep pace...