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Accounting Students' and Employers' Perceptions on Employability Skills in the SEE Country

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  • Atanasko Atanasovski
  • Marina Trpeska
  • Zorica Bozinovska Lazarevska

Abstract

Accounting education at the university level in developing SEE countries has often been criticised for the inability to develop essential skills of graduates necessary for a career in professional accountancy in the 21st century. Our research study presents the results of a survey among students enrolled to an accounting degree program and employers for their perceived importance of a wide range of generic and technical skills for successful entrance to the profession. The study also investigated perceived effectiveness of the university accounting education to develop important skills at an appropriate level. The results indicated agreement between the two respondent groups in respect of the greater importance of generic skills, where students gave more weight to personal skills of time management, good presentation and characteristics of self-confidence, motivation and self-promotion. Employers valued more oral communication, knowledge of foreign languages, ethical attitude and credibility and commitment to life-long learning. The employers and students agreed that education process and program need improvements in order to allow for better development of technical and generic skills among successful graduates.

Suggested Citation

  • Atanasko Atanasovski & Marina Trpeska & Zorica Bozinovska Lazarevska, 2018. "Accounting Students' and Employers' Perceptions on Employability Skills in the SEE Country," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2018(3), pages 55-71.
    • Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlefa:v:2018:y:2018:i:3:id:214:p:55-72
    DOI: 10.18267/j.efaj.214
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    2. Snead, Ken C. & Kraft, Margo J. & Lozada, Aida R. & McGrath, Richard N. & Biswas, Tania & Zhou, Fuzhao, 2023. "An Application of Judgement Modeling to Examine Inter-Cultural Differences Regarding Perceptions of Business Skill Importance," MPRA Paper 120040, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 26 Jan 2024.
    3. Andreea Cordos (Labaditis) & Adriana Tiron-Tudor, 2023. "Employability skills for professional accountants in the midstof Industry 4.0 - a literature review," Journal of Financial Studies, Institute of Financial Studies, vol. 15(8), pages 62-85, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Generic Skills; Students Employability; Expectation Gap; Students' Perceptions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

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