Generic Skills Gap in Curricula: Are Thai Accounting Graduates Ready for the Contemporary Workplace?
Keywords:
Generic skills, Accounting education, Thai university, Accounting curriculumAbstract
The impact of globalization and technology on business brought an enormous change in contemporary accounting activities and the role of accounting professionals. Such a major shift in their regular activities demands more generic/soft skills along with core accounting knowledge to perform professional tasks in today's competitive market. Keeping that in mind, this study identifies core generic skills for accounting graduates and readiness of the bachelor of accountancy programs to fulfill the market demand. This study has conducted in two phases, firstly, through a rigorous literature review five major generic skills are identified; secondly, by analyzing five universities' accounting curricula, the presence of those skills is investigated. Findings of this study indicate that major generic skills such as communication techniques, leadership skill, IT literacy, analytical and decision-making skills and ethical and moral values are still not sufficient in the curriculum of the accounting programs of most of the educational institutes in Thailand which eventually devaluate the quality of the graduates in the job market. Besides, exploring the gap in the curriculum, this study also recommends that educational institutions in Thailand offering accounting programs should review their programs to match the generic skill requirement of the job market.
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