Core subjects in accounting academic programmes: Development of pervasive skills

Monique Keevy

South African Journal of Accounting Research, 2020, vol. 34, issue 2, 140-160

Abstract: Accounting education has in recent years increasingly emphasised the need for developing pervasive skills. This paper reports on a South African study of the perceptions of aspirant chartered accountants (CAs) on the importance of the core subjects during the academic programme, in developing pervasive skills, in the categories of ethical behaviour and professionalism, personal attributes, and professional skills. A questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions was administered to aspirant CAs who had completed their academic programme, and were in the process of completing their training programme. Aspirant CAs reported that overall pervasive skills were most prevalent in the subject of Strategy. Ethical behaviour and professionalism skills were most prevalent in the subject of Audit, personal attribute skills were most prevalent in the subject of Strategy while professional skills were most prevalent in the subject of Accounting. Taxation received the lowest ranking overall for pervasive skills as well as for the different categories of skills. Educators need to make greater efforts to inculcate pervasive skills by using real-life, practical examples in their core subjects. Furthermore, pervasive skills should be integrated into core subjects, as these are complementary in nature. Furthermore, integrating core subjects can enhance the acquisition of pervasive skills.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10291954.2020.1727081 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rsarxx:v:34:y:2020:i:2:p:140-160

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rsar20

DOI: 10.1080/10291954.2020.1727081

Access Statistics for this article

South African Journal of Accounting Research is currently edited by Soon Nel

More articles in South African Journal of Accounting Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().