South African training officers' perception of skills requirements for entry-level trainee accountants

Abstract

Given the rapid pace of change, the environment in which today's accountants work has become far more demanding. In response to these demands, accountants are having to upgrade their skills and, in particular, to become highly computer literate and acquire skills such as communication, analytical and interpersonal skills. The objective of this study was to determine the perceptions of training officers of the levels of these skills and computer capabilities among entry-level trainee accountants. For all nine information technology (IT) capabilities identified, the expectation was that entry-level trainee accountants would have had at least average exposure, namely the ability to use the IT application under supervision. All the listed skills (namely, communication, analytical and interpersonal skills) were perceived to be important or very important for entry-level trainee accountants, which illustrates that there is a movement towards an expanded set of competencies beyond the technical knowledge typically taught. Independent statistical tests revealed that the perceptions of respondents of the IT capabilities and identified skills for entry-level trainee accountants did not differ significantly with respect to training inside public practice (TIPP) and training outside public practice (TOPP). Only two instances where found where significant disagreement between TIPP and TOPP respondents' perceptions existed, namely for the IT capability of audit working paper-related software and for the analytical skill of analysing business problems.