The New Generation of Auditors Meeting Praxis: Dual Learning’s Role in Audit Students’ Professional Development

ABSTRACT

This paper explores whether and in what way “dual learning” can develop understanding of the relationship between structure/judgement and explores audit student’s perceptions of the audit profession. The Work Integrated Learning (WIL) module, serving as a tool of enabling dual learning, represents the context for this exploration. The study is based on a focus group and individual interviews conducted with students performing their WIL. Our data and its analysis indicates that when in a WIL context, students develop awareness of the use of standards and checklists on the one hand, and the importance of discretional judgement on the other. Based on these results, we theorise as to how dual learning manifests itself in students’ experiences and understanding of the relationship between structure and judgement.

KEYWORDS:

• Dual-learning
• auditing education
• work-integrated learning
• professional education

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In this paper we use “structure” and “management by documents” as synonymous concepts.

2 See section “Dual learning” for a description of the concept.

3 The quotes in this paper have been adjusted to more easily readable texts and then translated into English.

4 The auditor who leads the audit team, who signs the audit, and is the main audit office contact for the audit engagement.