When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they ha... more When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they have the opportunity to consider their period of work experience from a number of perspectives. For example, they could concentrate on the skills they developed or honed during the placement, which aspects of the role they found challenging, how they believe they benefited from the placement experience, the contribution they feel they made to the host organisation, the ways in which they applied learning from their studies to the workplace, and/or how the placement has influenced their thinking about their future career. However, the reality is that assessors are often left lamenting the quality of the reflective accounts produced by students. A common criticism is that students tend to be descriptive rather than analytical, focusing more on documenting the tasks they undertook while on placement, or simply listing skills without providing clear supporting evidence of how they were develop...
When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they ha... more When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they have the opportunity to consider their period of work experience from a number of perspectives. For example, they could concentrate on the skills they developed or honed during the placement, which aspects of the role they found challenging, how they believe they benefited from the placement experience, the contribution they feel they made to the host organisation, the ways in which they applied learning from their studies to the workplace, and/or how the placement has influenced their thinking about their future career. However, the reality is that assessors are often left lamenting the quality of the reflective accounts produced by students. A common criticism is that students tend to be descriptive rather than analytical, focusing more on documenting the tasks they undertook while on placement, or simply listing skills without providing clear supporting evidence of how they were develop...
For the academic year 2015-16, a new route was devised for undergraduate students in year three o... more For the academic year 2015-16, a new route was devised for undergraduate students in year three of their four-year Management degree. This route, denoted 'Connect to Business', was designed to allow students to participate in short work placements in SMEs or Third Sector organisations for two-three days per week. These placements were undertaken alongside a focused programme of personal and professional development, and taught project modules in enterprise and business consultancy. In addition, at the start of the Connect to Business year, the students were given the opportunity to take part in a three-day residential module devoted to a range of enterprise and employability topics. The design of this residential drew on lessons learned from our leadership of residential courses for students on summer placements in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (the ScotGrad Placement Programme) and represented part of our commitment to the embedding of learning from that programme i...
We would like to thank the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER... more We would like to thank the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) for supporting this research.
... the focus has appeared to shift towards non-academic skills and this trend has been gathering... more ... the focus has appeared to shift towards non-academic skills and this trend has been gathering in momentum over the last ... Indeed, reporting specifically on accountancy recruitment, Akler (1995) stated that ' the biggest single change in recruitment has been a shift towards non ...
Today's challenging economic situation means that it is no longer sufficient for a new graduate t... more Today's challenging economic situation means that it is no longer sufficient for a new graduate to have knowledge of an academic subject; increasingly it is necessary for students to gain those skills which will enhance their prospects of employment. For over a decade, a number of employers have been sounding warnings to the higher education sector that a ‘skills gap’ was emerging at the employer/graduate interface. This paper highlights one strategy that attempts to facilitate the development of transferable and managerial skills in an undergraduate accounting degree. Using a stakeholder approach the adequacy of current in-house provision, and a comparison of this with best practice in the sector, was undertaken. Analysis of the findings resulted in the conclusion that skills development using an embedded delivery approach was insufficient. Likewise, a dedicated skills module in Year 1 was also inadequate and an appropriate course needed to be developed and incorporated as a core module in Year 2 of the programme. The result of this has been the creation of a module entitled Business Enterprise Skills.
When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they ha... more When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they have the opportunity to consider their period of work experience from a number of perspectives. For example, they could concentrate on the skills they developed or honed during the placement, which aspects of the role they found challenging, how they believe they benefited from the placement experience, the contribution they feel they made to the host organisation, the ways in which they applied learning from their studies to the workplace, and/or how the placement has influenced their thinking about their future career. However, the reality is that assessors are often left lamenting the quality of the reflective accounts produced by students. A common criticism is that students tend to be descriptive rather than analytical, focusing more on documenting the tasks they undertook while on placement, or simply listing skills without providing clear supporting evidence of how they were develop...
When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they ha... more When students are asked to write an account reflecting on a work placement or internship, they have the opportunity to consider their period of work experience from a number of perspectives. For example, they could concentrate on the skills they developed or honed during the placement, which aspects of the role they found challenging, how they believe they benefited from the placement experience, the contribution they feel they made to the host organisation, the ways in which they applied learning from their studies to the workplace, and/or how the placement has influenced their thinking about their future career. However, the reality is that assessors are often left lamenting the quality of the reflective accounts produced by students. A common criticism is that students tend to be descriptive rather than analytical, focusing more on documenting the tasks they undertook while on placement, or simply listing skills without providing clear supporting evidence of how they were develop...
For the academic year 2015-16, a new route was devised for undergraduate students in year three o... more For the academic year 2015-16, a new route was devised for undergraduate students in year three of their four-year Management degree. This route, denoted 'Connect to Business', was designed to allow students to participate in short work placements in SMEs or Third Sector organisations for two-three days per week. These placements were undertaken alongside a focused programme of personal and professional development, and taught project modules in enterprise and business consultancy. In addition, at the start of the Connect to Business year, the students were given the opportunity to take part in a three-day residential module devoted to a range of enterprise and employability topics. The design of this residential drew on lessons learned from our leadership of residential courses for students on summer placements in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (the ScotGrad Placement Programme) and represented part of our commitment to the embedding of learning from that programme i...
We would like to thank the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER... more We would like to thank the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) for supporting this research.
... the focus has appeared to shift towards non-academic skills and this trend has been gathering... more ... the focus has appeared to shift towards non-academic skills and this trend has been gathering in momentum over the last ... Indeed, reporting specifically on accountancy recruitment, Akler (1995) stated that ' the biggest single change in recruitment has been a shift towards non ...
Today's challenging economic situation means that it is no longer sufficient for a new graduate t... more Today's challenging economic situation means that it is no longer sufficient for a new graduate to have knowledge of an academic subject; increasingly it is necessary for students to gain those skills which will enhance their prospects of employment. For over a decade, a number of employers have been sounding warnings to the higher education sector that a ‘skills gap’ was emerging at the employer/graduate interface. This paper highlights one strategy that attempts to facilitate the development of transferable and managerial skills in an undergraduate accounting degree. Using a stakeholder approach the adequacy of current in-house provision, and a comparison of this with best practice in the sector, was undertaken. Analysis of the findings resulted in the conclusion that skills development using an embedded delivery approach was insufficient. Likewise, a dedicated skills module in Year 1 was also inadequate and an appropriate course needed to be developed and incorporated as a core module in Year 2 of the programme. The result of this has been the creation of a module entitled Business Enterprise Skills.
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