Employability and digital technology: what skills employers want from accounting workers?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to assess the employability and digital technology skills needed by the world of work in the accounting field as required in the job advertisement. This study analyzed 532 job advertisements from four ASEAN countries. The employability skills framework is formulated as generic skills and personal attributes. Employers want accountants to have high proficiency in interpersonal and communication skills, self-management skills, and analytical and problem-solving abilities. Employees in the accounting field also need to have excellent attitudes and behaviors such as being honest and with integrity, working conscientiously, responsibly, and being able to work independently. This study found that advanced spreadsheet skills and the ability to operate accounting software, including enterprise resource planning systems and cloud-accounting, are demanded in the accounting job market. The findings of this study contribute to supporting the needs analysis to further develop and enhance the accounting education curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Accounting job market
• employability skills
• personal attributes
• digital technology skills

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to all parties, especially students who have helped in collecting data and academics who have contributed to this research. Also, to anonymous reviewers and the editorial team for their support and help in developing the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Bali State Polytechnic DIPA in 2021 with a research agreement letter number: 941/PL8/PG/2021