Curriculum Content Improvement Needs for Accounting Employability Skills Acquisition of Undergraduate Students in North- East, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the curriculum content improvement needs for Accounting employability skills acquisition of undergraduate Accounting Education students in North-east, Nigeria. The study had two research questions and two null hypotheses. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 172 Accountants, 52 Accounting Educators and 312 final year undergraduate Accounting Education students. The sample of the study comprised 156 Accounting Educators, 52 Accountants in industries, and 281 final year undergraduate Accounting Education students. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire had two different rating scales. The first rating scale was used to collect data relating to the level of importance of the skills to the needs of undergraduate Accounting Education students and the second rating scale was used to collect data on the extent to which the skills were consciously developed among the students. The structured questionnaire was validated and pilot tested, a reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained. The data were collected by the researcher assisted by 10 trained research assistants. The data were analyzed using Table of frequencies, mean scores, standard deviations, and improvement needs index to answer the research questions, while the hypotheses were tested using independent sample t. test. The study disclosed that 1. All the skills were adjudged by Accounting Educators and Accountants in industries as very important for inclusion in the curriculum of undergraduate Accounting Education students in North- east, Nigeria. 2. Undergraduate Accounting Education students were deficient in four of the six subscales of accounting employability skills. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Accounting Educators should include the areas of deficiency in the curriculum and focus attention on developing those accounting skills identified in this study,

Keywords:Accounting skills, Accounting Employability skills, Skill Improvement Needs, Curriculum Improvement Needs

DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/12-18-08

Publication date:September 30^th 2021