Generic Skill Development for Accounting Students: A Prescription for Success

Increasing calls for the integration of generic skills development into the accounting course curriculum has created the imperative to both understand the developmental process and map the delivery of such skill development within Higher Education Institutions (HEI). Prior attempts in the literature to map the delivery of generic skills and attributes within commerce degrees (Sumsion & Goodfellow 2004; de la Harpe, Radloff, & Wyber 2000), have generally failed to go beyond a cross sectional snapshot of generic skill delivery. These studies provided little or no guidance to the laddered development of generic skills and expected skill outcome at each level of a degree. The Hierarchical Generic Skills Relationship model presented in this paper is used to map and prescribe the delivery of generic skills in an accounting specialisation in order to ensure their tiered development. The model draws on individual generic skill constructs which were developed for the identified key generic skills: oral and written communication; ethical understanding; problem solving and critical thinking; personal and interpersonal skills; and business IT skills. The individual generic skill constructs demonstrate the laddered acquisition of each generic skill and also highlight the interrelated nature of the identified key generic skills.The application of the Hierarchical Generic Skills Relationship model presented in this paper effectively highlights the gaps in the delivery of generic skills in the current accounting curriculum at CSU. The paper proposes a prescriptive approach to the delivery of generic skills to overcome and circumvent future gap. It is hoped this approach will enhance the level of debate and discussion regarding the teaching of generic skills amongst academic staff.