Relevant competences in accounting. The perspective of students and employers

Abstract

University education is focused on the acquisition of skills by students, regardless of the technical nature of the subjects and syllabus. In the field of accounting, previous literature has confirmed the existence of a gap in expectations between the skills of students and what would be desirable from a professional perspective. The main contribution of this paper is the analysis of desirable and acquired competences from two perspectives: students and employers, with the aim of analyzing to what extent the competences acquired by future accounting professionals are adapted to those required. The study includes both generic and accounting-specific competences. The results confirm that both groups (students and employers) agree on the skills required of accountants and confirm that these relevant skills are not being adequately acquired, showing that there is an expectation gap with regard to the skills acquired.