Developing soft skills (also known as pervasive skills)

What is it about?

The need to deliver well-rounded accounting graduates demonstrating core technical and pervasive skills and competencies calls for new and innovative teaching methods. Accounting educators and programmes are continuously challenged regarding which methods to apply to meet these outcomes and substantiate their usefulness. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the usefulness of a tax intervention from the perspectives of three groups of role-players (student participants, student committee members and employer companies). The intervention was designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop pervasive skills and to determine if the intervention succeeded in encouraging students to apply the broader set of pervasive skills required by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). Action research was conducted according to a parallel convergent mixed-method research design. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered using questionnaires and focus group interviews to determine the usefulness of the intervention. All three groups perceived the intervention to be effective in requiring students to apply the full spectrum of pervasive skills. Although all the pervasive skills were perceived to be present in the intervention, teamwork, communication (listening and verbal) and time management skills were perceived to be most prominent, while written communication, professionalism and ethical awareness were found to be less prominent. Overall, the intervention can be recommended as an effective and innovative teaching method that can positively contribute to the pervasive skills development of accounting students.

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Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash

Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash