Expectations and reality: Discerning the balance between skills and attributes for future accountants as perceived by accountancy faculty members and students within Metro Manila

• Main Authors: Dantes, Paolo John A., Manuel, Marvin Joseph T., Tumaliuan, Kimberly N.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: Accountants > Vocational guidance > Philippines > Metro Manila
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6114
• Institution: De La Salle University

The task of choosing the right course to suit ones strengths carries with it a great deal of significance as this type of action affects the future career of the student. External factors such as parents, teachers, and the media contribute to this decision the same way as internal factors like personal plans and interests do. Unfortunately, there is still a great number of students who are unsure of which area of study to pursue. This circumstance may lead students to choose blindly on which course to take for their tertiary education. There is a mismatch that often occurs to college students with respect to their major field of study. The success of obtaining employment mostly depends on the skills and attributes possessed by the student and developed by their institutions. However, most schools do not provide students with the exact skills and attributes that are demanded by the market. This study plans to evaluate the necessary skills and attributes of a successful accountancy graduate from the perception of students and faculty members from the top ten accounting schools in the Philippines based on board examination passing rates. The study requires an analysis of the perceptions and expectations of students and faculty members with respect to skills and attributes classified under different categories based on their nature. It aims to discern the existence of significant differences between these qualities. Tools such as descriptive statistics, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and t-test of independent samples supplemented by Levenes Test for Equality of Variances were used by the researchers to assist in the analysis of the data gathered. Through the aforementioned statistical tools, this research discovered the existence of discrepancies between the perceptions of accountancy students and faculty members in relation to the necessary skills and attributes a successful accountancy graduate should possess when observing the individual skills and attributes. The information gathered together with the inferred connotations of this study may have applications for the academe, the regulatory bodies in the Philippines, and the future researchers. In addition, the findings of this study could explain certain phenomenon such as the economic mismatch of labor in the country and the daunting mortality rates of accountancy students at the university level.