Advances in Research
2(11): 645-654, 2014, Article no. AIR.2014.11.008
SCIENCEDOMAIN international
www.sciencedomain.org
The Value
of Soft-Skills in the Accounting
Profession:
Perspectives of Current Accounting Students
Sunil
Ramlall1* and Dhanmati Ramlall2*
1Strategic
HRM Consulting, LLC, USA.2Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, USA.
ABSTRACT
With employers
increasingly demanding a greater range of softer skills such as effective communication,
the paper is intended to identify current accounting students’ perspectives on
soft skills, identify their self-assessed competence in the respective soft skills,
and suggest ways in which accounting students can gain soft skills. We assessed
students’ level of perception/knowledge of soft skills, its’ importance and
their self-assessment of their level of possession of these skills. With a
sample size of 313 participants, we found that there were fewer gaps in what
students perceived as being important in the accounting profession and how prepared
they are in fulfilling the expectations. In addition, we found that the
universities were placing more emphasis on developing these soft skills that
have shown to be beneficial in students’ careers.
