An investigation into accounting and business students’ employability beliefs

ABSTRACT

The accounting profession is challenged by professional shortages, declining university enrolments, and uncertainty about the profile of future accountants regarding technological advancements. It is thus timely to investigate the employability beliefs of accounting students in higher education throughout Australia. This study employed a multi-factor self-assessment of perceived employability (PE) grounded in social cognitive career theory to investigate the PE of accounting students (n = 3116) relative to other business students (n = 4973), and across degree progression. Compared with their business peers, accounting students reported greater program awareness, but their perceived communication skills, emotional intelligence, and ethical and responsible behaviour were lower than their business peers. Accounting students became more likely to reconsider their choice of program as they progressed, with accounting students in their third year or later less confident in terms of self-awareness, program awareness, the perceived relevance of their program, and their perceived ethical and responsible behaviour. The discipline-specific comparisons extend previous research and indicate that employability initiatives should be embedded early in accounting curricula to enhance students’ PE, career understanding, and related skillsets. The potential to enhance accounting students’ PE, and thus improve academic achievement, persistence, and employment outcomes is relevant to educators, curriculum managers and accreditation bodies.

KEYWORDS:

• Accounting education
• perceived employability
• social cognitive career theory
• business students

Introduction

This study aims to answer the question ‘What are the self-perceptions of employability skills among accounting students in higher education’? The study responds to a lack of comprehensive evaluations of how accountants in training perceive their employability skills and, thus, where and how they might be best supported by educators and professional bodies. To answer the research question, the study analyses the perceived employability (PE) of accounting students in Australia across sixteen employability dimensions, both with reference to other business students and across degree progression.

Recent research with business students found variations in students’ program awareness relative to career and in students’ confidence that they had made the right choice of major (Bennett et al., 2020; McKenzie & Bennett, 2022). Variations in confidence have also been reported across years of study and gender, resulting in a call for further exploration into discipline-specific student employability beliefs across and between the broad business disciplines (Bennett et al., 2020, 2022). Such perceptions, which can be thought of as study- and career-related confidence, are an important consideration when seeking to understand technological disruption, declining enrolments, and skills shortages within the accounting profession, both in Australia and in other countries. Whilst the research with business students is welcome, a paucity of PE research at the discipline level has until now prohibited discipline-specific analysis.

The study reported here addressed this call by undertaking an initial investigation into one disciplinary area, accounting, specifically exploring the PE of accounting students with their business peers. Grounded in social cognitive career theory and employing a multi-factor self-assessment of PE, the analysis identifies PE traits in need of attention and informs strategies with which educators and professional bodies might help students to build their confidence in and awareness of an accounting career.

Globally, the number of students seeking to undertake a major in accounting is declining and is substantially lower than in prior years (Hunter, 2021; Oben & van Rooyen, 2023); this has contributed to a shortage of skilled accounting professionals (Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, 2022). The number of accounting students in Australia has decreased by 10% since 2014 (Thomson, 2022). In the United States (US), Brink et al. (2023) highlight decreases of 2.8% and 8.4% in undergraduate and masters accounting graduates as noted in the AICPA 2021 Trends report. In the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland, students pursuing an accounting qualification via one of the professional bodies has declined by 3.5% (Financial Reporting Council, 2023).

In contrast, the demand for accountants currently exceeds supply (Commonwealth Bank, 2022). Moreover, demand has been forecasted to grow 9.2% between 2021 and 2026 in Australia (Australian Government, 2021) and 6% between 2021 and 2031 in the US (Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S Department of Labor, 2022). Compounding this is recent Australian data suggesting that 93% of firms struggle to fill their vacancies (Commonwealth Bank, 2022). Factors impacting the future demand for, and role of accountants have been linked to various considerations including the changing global business environment and technological disruption (Bowles et al., 2020; Davern et al., 2019; Pasewark, 2021). In particular, automation and advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming the roles performed by accountants (Bakarich & O'Brien, 2021; Elo et al., 2023; Faulconbridge et al., 2023; Hunter, 2021). Such considerations may cause students to feel uncertain about the future of the accounting profession; however, whether and how uncertainty is experienced by students has been little explored.

Adapting to change is not a new phenomenon for the accounting profession, which has evolved in response to automation and changing business requirements. Previous studies have explored the changing skills requirements of professional accountants (e.g. Albrecht & Sack, 2000; Bennett et al., 2020; Jackson et al., 2023), and others have investigated whether the accounting curriculum adequately prepares students for these changing roles (e.g. Bayerlein & Timpson, 2017; Carvalho & Almeida, 2022; Douglas & Gammie, 2019; Elo et al., 2023; Herbert et al., 2021). However, Carnegie et al. (2021) highlight a lack of consensus about the future ‘identity, role and work of accounting and the accountant’ (p. 65). This in turn may stoke concerns about the value and efficacy of an accounting degree.

A contemporaneous increase in career and study options for higher education students has resulted in greater choice than ever before. Students who may in the past have pursued an accounting major as one of few accredited career options can now select from multiple majors and career paths (Hunter, 2021; Pasewark, 2021), with other business-related career options promising higher graduate salaries and less onerous accreditation requirements post-graduation (Mutoh, 2023). These factors highlight the need to better understand the study and career confidence – the PE – of accounting students.

Contribution

The study contributes to the literature in two key areas: a comprehensive exploration of PE among accounting students enrolled at Australian universities; and the application of a social cognitive career theory (SCCT) lens.

Regarding the first contribution, trends in student enrolments and the broader accounting profession have prompted calls for research incorporating students from multiple universities to better understand the impact of pedagogical experiences on students’ employability beliefs (Byrne et al., 2014; Cavanagh et al., 2015). Whilst extant research has examined the self-efficacy of accounting students, for example in the context of academic performance in accounting courses (e.g. Beatson et al., 2020; Beatson et al., 2024; Byrne et al., 2014), research into accounting students’ broader PE has been limited (Elo et al., 2023). In the broader employability literature, self-beliefs underpinning PE have been positively linked to academic achievement, persistence, and job-seeking behaviours (Turner, 2014; Uwakwe et al., 2023; Wright et al., 2013). Exploring student perceptions of PE has been identified as important (Tymon, 2013) and a priority for research (Jackson, 2019). This study’s comprehensive exploration of PE among accounting students addresses this gap by assessing PE dimensions relative to a meaningful reference group, business students, and by exploring the evolution of PE across the degree life cycle. The latter exploration in particular sheds light on the degree to which training programs do or do not improve the PE of future professionals.

The adoption of a SCCT lens has been suggested by prior research (Oben & van Rooyen, 2023; Schoenfeld et al., 2017) and reflects the social construction of career identity, making it a logical framework with which to explore the PE of accounting students enrolled at Australian universities. The second contribution of the present work, namely the adoption of SCCT coupled with the use of business students as a reference group, promotes comparability of findings with extant studies which have employed SCCT. Such insights extend the discipline-specific literature on the PE of accounting students and the use of SCCT in exploring PE dimensions.

The contributions of this study are strengthened using a multi-institution sample, making the findings relevant to both academic institutions and professional accreditation bodies, with direct implications for career education. The study presented here therefore provides more comprehensive insight into the PE of accounting students than previously available and expands the dialogue relating to practice and accounting education.

The paper is structured as follows. A discussion of related literature in the next section is followed by the theoretical framework and hypotheses development. We then discuss the methodology and data characteristics of the study. Presentation of results follows. Discussion of the results incorporating implications of our findings, limitations of the study and opportunities for future research are then provided, followed by the study’s conclusion.

Literature review

The literature review begins with research related to universities and graduate employability. This is followed with analysis of research investigating the PE of business and accounting students. The section concludes with a review of literature related to the development of employability skills among accounting students.

Universities and graduate employability

It is increasingly incumbent on universities to prepare graduates for their future roles (Cavanagh et al., 2015), with increasing focus on the development of discipline-specific and generic employability capabilities (Twyford & Dean, 2023). Consequently, the employability of higher education graduates has been widely discussed in the literature. Although there is a lack of consistency as to the definition of employability (McKenzie et al., 2017; Tymon, 2013), within the context of higher education it represents students’ ability to successfully navigate and pursue their career post-graduation (Bennett, 2020). Employability capabilities extend beyond early career and discipline-specific technical knowledge to incorporate the professional skills, experiences and attributes on which the maintenance of employability depends (Jackson & Wilton, 2016). The formation and development of career identity is another important aspect of future employability, and one which is socially constructed through interactions with peers, family, colleagues and others (Bennett, 2020; Cavanagh et al., 2015; Jackson, 2016; McKenzie et al., 2017). The focus of this study is PE, which can be described as students’ confidence in their employability based on study and career-related confidence.

The importance of preparing graduates for future work was highlighted in the Millennial Survey conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (2015) of 29 countries, including Australia, with respondents indicating that approximately 60% of the skills required in roles post-graduation are not developed during their studies. This view is similar to the Elo et al. (2023) study exploring the perceptions of accounting students in Finland, with students perceiving that various key skills were not being fully developed during their studies. Such critiques underscore the view that in addition to technical competence and given technological disruption and the changing nature of work, employability demands both agility and a commitment to lifelong learning and skill acquisition. Given career uncertainty, it is timely to investigate accounting students’ PE and make informed suggestions which may help alleviate some challenges faced by the profession.

Perceived employability of business students

Undergraduate business students pursue majors and career choices in areas in which they have confidence and interest, and in which they perceive there to be career opportunities (Kim et al., 2002; Malgwi et al., 2005). Students’ confidence in their choices varies across the student lifecycle: Jackson and Wilton (2017) explored the perception of business students studying at a university in both the UK and Australia and found that students’ career choice certainty increases with each year of study, with Australian graduates evidencing high career certainty. However, the study is limited to two institutions and to participants who had engaged in work integrated learning (WIL) or obtained work experience during their studies (Jackson & Wilton, 2017). Bennett et al. (2022) explored the PE of students studying business at 32 Australian universities and found female students to express greater awareness of their program, but to be generally less confident than their male peers.

Concepts such as employability can be confusing for students. In considering PE, Cavanagh et al. (2015) find undergraduate business students to be unsure what is meant by employability and not confident they have developed the skills to successfully transition into graduate roles. While Cavanagh et al. (2015) focus on students from a single Australian University, Jackson and Bridgstock (2019) explore graduate employability and perceptions of graduates from the business and creative industries disciplines from three Australian universities. They find graduates to be generally optimistic about their employability even if this does not translate to their view of career success. Overall, these studies suggest students may not feel prepared for graduate life, in part because they do not yet know what the expectations of them will be.

Whilst the findings of Cavanagh et al. (2015) and Jackson and Bridgstock (2019) are constrained by smaller sample sizes, Bennett et al. (2020) employed an SCCT framework utilising a large sample to analyse the views of undergraduate business students across different years of study, with first-year students forming a substantial portion of the sample. The findings suggest that business students’ confidence in their choice of a business program is not high, but that despite this they are focussed on the relevance of their degree to their graduate work (Bennett et al., 2020). It follows that engaging with students throughout their degree to develop career awareness and to make explicit the relevance of their studies is an important element of higher education studies.

Employability beliefs of accounting students

The self-efficacy beliefs of accounting students have been explored in a variety of settings (e.g. Beatson et al., 2020, 2024; Byrne et al., 2014; Hassall et al., 2013; Roberts et al., 2023), and a small number of studies have examined career and study confidence among accounting students more specifically. Jackling and Calero (2006) surveyed students in a first-year accounting subject across five Australian universities and found students with positive perceptions of the profession and discipline to be more likely to pursue an accounting career. In the US, Schoenfeld et al. (2017) concluded that students with higher self-efficacy and confidence were more likely to achieve CPA accreditation.

In a longitudinal study, Marriott and Marriott (2003) explored the perceptions of students pursuing an accounting major at two business schools in the UK. The authors surveyed students in their first year and again in their final year and determined that students perceive their future careers in the accounting profession less favourably as they progress through their studies. This is consistent with Bennett et al. (2022)’s study in relation to business students in Australia but in contrast to Ahmad et al. (2015)’s study of students studying accounting at Malaysian universities. Ahmad et al. (2015) determined that in the second year of study, female students have higher commitment and that career commitment for both female and male students becomes more focused as they approach graduation. Consistent with studies relating to students pursuing a broader business degree, evidence suggests that efficacy beliefs and career awareness are important to accounting students’ PE and future career beliefs.

Developing employability skills

Research highlights the importance of authentic learning and access to industry experience for business students (Bennett et al., 2020) and accounting students (Jackson et al., 2023). In this context, accounting students are encouraged to seek professional work experience and internships during their degree, thereby providing opportunities to apply theory to practice. Work experience is valued by employers (Mistry, 2021), and industry evidence suggests that accounting graduate roles can be offered to candidates who have completed work experience or internships with the employer (GradConnection, 2023). In Australia, however, internships are rarely a formal requirement of a degree, unlike the professional placements in teaching and medicine (Stanley & Xu, 2019).

The extant literature demonstrates the benefits of WIL in developing work-ready graduates (Jackson & Meek, 2021; Twyford & Dean, 2023). Moreover, industry experience helps to reduce praxis shock, a phenomenon commonly found in teacher education where new graduates feel unprepared for their role (Ballantyne, 2006, 2007). Herbert et al. (2021) call on accounting educators and wider stakeholders to support work-based learning and assist accounting students in developing pre-professional identity to further enhance graduate work readiness. Consequently, work experience and the development of discipline-specific technical and professional skills support the development of career identity and employability confidence (Bennett et al., 2023; Jackson, 2016; Jackson & Wilton, 2016).

Theoretical framework and hypothesis development

The following subsections outline the study’s theoretical framework, hypothesis development and research questions.

Employability and social cognitive career theory

Consistent with extant PE studies and the instrument employed for data collection with students, the study was grounded in SCCT. SCCT is an extension of Bandura (1986)’s social cognitive theory and recognises the social construction of career identity, the influences of proximal and distal factors, and the role of psychological capital (Lent & Brown, 1996; Schoenfeld et al., 2017). SCCT has evolved over time from a focus on interest, goals, and performance (Lent et al., 1994; Lent et al., 2000) through to wellbeing (Lent & Brown, 2006), adaptive behaviour and career self-management (Lent & Brown, 2013).

SCCT is an established theoretical framework for studies relating to employability, PE, career choice, and performance. This includes within the pre-professional space, where SCCT takes into account person inputs and contextual factors to explore the process aspects of career behaviour including career decision making (Lent et al., 2016). Another reason for the prevalence of SCCT in studies of PE is that it privileges the student perspective, which is often absent from discussions on graduate employability and graduate preparedness (Gedye & Beaumont, 2018).

SCCT studies are beginning to increase understanding of the cognitive or behavioural indicators which explain why some students actively develop their employability and others do not (Clements & Kamau, 2018); this thinking has also been applied to career self-management using SCCT in studies of workers (Thompson et al., 2017). Although the accuracy of students’ PE can only be answered through longitudinal studies which track students from study to career (Jackson & Wilton, 2017), Brown and Lent (2017) are among several SCCT scholars to call for research into the antecedents of career behaviours, including in the pre-career environment. What is already clear from the growing amount of empirical research is that the self-beliefs which underpin students’ PE (Turner, 2014) play a significant role in their academic performance, persistence, and graduate job-seeking behaviours (Turner, 2014; Uwakwe et al., 2023; Wright et al., 2013).

Efficacy beliefs are central to understanding the study and career behaviours of higher education students. Lent et al. (2017)’s exploration of self-efficacy sources and outcome expectations illustrates the importance of source variables including personal mastery, affect, verbal persuasion and vicarious learning. Extant research also links career interest to self-efficacy (Ahmad et al., 2015; Brown et al., 2011; Lent & Hackett, 1987).

Extrinsic factors such as financial reward are also incorporated in the SCCT framework (Schoenfeld et al., 2017). Whilst SCCT has not been used widely within the accounting context, its relevance to understanding the career expectations of accounting students is well established (Oben & van Rooyen, 2023; Schoenfeld et al., 2017; Suryani et al., 2018).

Hypothesis development

The development and self-perception of employability skills in accounting students is a key goal of their training in higher education. To determine areas of PE that are well developed or in need of targeted initiatives, the PE of accounting students relative to meaningful reference groups is important to understand. This leads to the following research questions:

1. RQ1: Are there differences in the PE of accounting students compared with business and management students?

2. RQ2: Are there differences in the PE of accounting students in their first year of study compared with those in later years?

The first research question provides a student-centric assessment of perceived strengths and weaknesses in comparison with students in related disciplines. The PE of accounting students across sixteen dimensions are contextualised by comparison to business students as this broader discipline represents a natural alternative to accounting for business-minded students and the two fields often overlap in early stages of study. The proximity of business students in study and interest, while being more generalist in nature, make them a useful point of reference. The comparison is further motivated by recent research which identified differences in the PE of business students (Bennett et al., 2020, 2022).

In formalising an a priori hypothesis corresponding to this research question, tension between several factors is relevant from the perspective of SCCT, which posits that employability beliefs are a function of both external environmental factors and internal subjective factors. Focusing on external factors, accounting students must consider the changing professional landscape, which comes with greater uncertainty about the role future accountants will fill, and whether automation will compromise future career prospects. More positively, the current shortage and subsequent demand for accounting professionals may play a greater role, especially when compared with arguably less specialised business disciplines. Further Jackling and Calero (2006) determine that students who have a positive view of the profession pursue accounting, whilst Tan and Laswad (2009) suggest accounting students select their major early and are less likely than other students to change their major.

As the accounting students have already chosen accounting as their field of study, rather than being dissuaded by negative externalities, this may imply that these students place less weight on negative environmental factors. Accordingly, our first hypothesis is:

1. H1: PE of accounting students will be significantly greater than for business and management students.

The second research question explores how the accounting curriculum and increased proximity to post-graduation professional life affects the evolution of employability beliefs. In formalising this research question with an a priori hypothesis, there is again tension between positive and negative factors. Given the prescriptive accreditation requirements of accounting education, unless education was found to be lacking, students could reasonably be expected to develop improved PE as they progress through their preparatory education and acquire professional skills. Consistent with this directionality, WIL undertaken by accounting students whilst studying is an external element which would be expected to build relevant skills and increase employability beliefs (Jackson & Bridgstock, 2021; Subramaniam & Freudenberg, 2007). Alternatively, increasing proximity to the time when students must enter the professional workforce, along with its previously described turbulence, may reduce employability confidence. We do not, however, find this latter explanation convincing and thus make the following hypothesis:

(2)	H2: Employability measures for accounting students will be positively and significantly associated with degree progression.

Methodology and data

This section begins with a description of the research instrument employed in the study. A description of the sample and related descriptive statistics of participants follows. An outline of the research methodology concludes this section.

Instrument

The study employed an established self-assessment of PE validated by Bennett and Ananthram (2022) and known as the Employ-ability self-assessment.¹ The instrument is the only one to assess PE across sixteen broad dimensions of study and career confidence, informed by social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) and Lent et al. (1994)’s SCCT (see Appendix). Select demographic data are also captured.

The instrument is well established, having been successfully employed in multiple studies including within business (Bennett et al., 2020, 2022) and the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical disciplines (Bennett et al., 2021; Bennett, Knight, and Bell, 2020; McBain et al., 2023). Its use in multiple higher education institutions has yielded over 70,000 valid responses, ensuring a meaningful sample size for studies such as this one. Ongoing data collection will support future research including comparisons with other business cohorts. Lastly, the instrument enhances the comparability of the current study with prior findings about the evolution of PE for business students (Bennett et al., 2022).

Sample

Ethical approvals were obtained before commencement (approval HRE2017-0125). Invitations were issued to students via university networks and student email, and a call for universities to participate was issued through professional associations, career services and staff university networks. Students were invited to create a personalised employability profile using the Employ-ability tool. They received an information sheet and an assurance of anonymity, and they completed a consent form. Students decided whether to include their responses in the research dataset and they received a profile report regardless of their decision. This was an important consideration for students who created profiles as part of a class.

The raw data included 70,258 responses from students in more than 40 universities across Australia between 2017 and 2022. To ensure the quality and relevance of the data, responses were removed if they did not belong to a student whose field of study was classified as either accounting or business and management, involved a non-genuine student ID, or if the student had responded to the tool previously. To ensure greater homogeneity, responses were also excluded if they did not correspond to an Australian institution or if the prior education of the student exceeded high school completion. Finally, responses with missing data for employability measures or explanatory variables (e.g. year of study) were excluded. The effect of these exclusions is shown in Table 1 and resulted in a final sample of responses from 3,116 accounting students and 4,973 business and management students (collectively referred to as ‘business students’). Students were categorised depending on whether they selected ‘Accounting’ or ‘Business and Management’ in response to the prompt ‘What is your major discipline?’.

Table 1. Data exclusions.

Data	Observations	Excluded Observations
All responses	70,258	N/A
Field of study: ‘Accounting’ or ‘Business and Management’	18,372	−51,886
Valid Student ID	18,238	−134
First Responses	14,428	−3,810
Australian Institution	10,597	−3,831
Prior education does not exceed high school	8,104	−2,493
Complete data	8,089	−15

Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 2. Extracted fields included the major discipline of each respondent and their PE along sixteen employability dimensions. To control for other explanatory factors when comparing business and accounting students, demographic data (age, sex, current work status) and details of study (study load, year of study) were extracted.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of participants.

Features	Business (n = 4,973)	Accounting (n = 3,116)
Independent Variables – Categorical	Count (Proportion)
Sex
Female	2,657 (53.43%)	1,570 (50.38%)
Male	2,299 (46.23%)	1,528 (49.04%)
Other	17 (0.34%)	18 (0.58%)
Stage of Study
Year 1	2,046 (41.14%)	1,255 (40.28%)
Year 2	461 (9.27%)	327 (10.49%)
Year 3+	2,466 (49.59%)	1,534 (49.23%)
Study Load
Part time	590 (11.86%)	344 (11.04%)
Full time	4,383 (88.14%)	2,772 (88.96%)
Employment
None	1,447 (29.10%)	1,258 (40.37%)
Casual or part time	2,937 (59.06%)	1,546 (49.62%)
Full time	589 (11.84%)	312 (10.01%)
Study Mode
In Person	3,154 (63.42%)	2,072 (66.50%)
Online	932 (18.74%)	647 (20.76%)
Mixed	887 (17.84%)	397 (12.74%)
Independent Variables – Categorical	Count (Proportion)
Year of Response
2017	32 (0.64%)	22 (0.71%)
2018	336 (6.76%)	163 (5.23%)
2019	814 (16.37%)	1,012 (32.48%)
2020	1,068 (21.48%)	636 (20.41%)
2021	1,382 (27.79%)	730 (23.43%)
2022	1,341 (26.97%)	553 (17.75%)
Independent Variables – Numeric	Mean (Standard Deviation)
Age	21.63 (4.32)	22.18 (5.46)
Employability Dimensions^a
Self awareness (1–6)	4.63 (0.80)	4.58 (0.84)
Program awareness (1–6)	4.72 (0.81)	4.80 (0.82)
Communication skills (1–6)	4.73 (0.65)	4.58 (0.71)
Digital and technological literacy (1–7)	4.85 (0.84)	4.85 (0.86)
Problem solving and decision making (1–6)	4.56 (0.72)	4.52 (0.75)
Goal-directed behaviour (1–6)	4.47 (0.77)	4.51 (0.79)
Identification with commitment (1–5)	3.78 (0.77)	3.78 (0.77)
Reconsideration of commitment (1–5)	2.84 (0.94)	2.91 (0.98)
Self-esteem (0–3)	2.17 (0.48)	2.16 (0.49)
Academic self-efficacy (1–7)	5.27 (0.84)	5.26 (0.87)
Ability and willingness to learn (1–6)	4.60 (0.77)	4.62 (0.81)
Perceived program relevance (1–5)	4.02 (0.55)	3.98 (0.57)
Career exploration and awareness (0–9)	6.73 (1.40)	6.66 (1.43)
Occupational mobility (0–9)	6.32 (1.52)	6.34 (1.56)
Emotional intelligence (1–5)	3.48 (0.36)	3.42 (0.38)
Ethical and responsible behaviour (1–6)	5.08 (0.69)	4.98 (0.75)

^a Brackets in this column should be interpreted as the possible range for each employability dimension, from low belief (e.g., low self-esteem with a value of 0) to strong belief (e.g., high self-esteem with a value of 3).

Methodology

To assess differences in the PE of accounting and business students (RQ1), all sixteen validated employability dimensions are considered. For each dimension, multivariable linear regression was employed to assess the effect of each student’s field of study, as represented by a dummy variable indicating whether each student studied accounting (1) or business (0). To ensure that differences were more reliably attributable to the field of study, control variables, as shown in Table 2, were also included. These variables capture demographic information, work status, and details of study. The model employed to address the first research question (RQ1) was expressed as: $Y_j=\mathit{X}{\beta }_j^T+{\alpha }_j\times \mathrm{Accounting}+{ϵ}_j$where $Y_j$ is the jth employability measure vector as described in Table 2, $\mathit{X}$ is a matrix of control variables and ${\beta }_j$ is the corresponding coefficient vector. Of primary interest for RQ1 is ${\alpha }_j$, which is the coefficient of the $\mathrm{Accounting}$ dummy variable. Lastly, ${ϵ}_j$ is the error vector for the jth employability measure.

To assess differences in the PE of accounting students in their first year of study compared with those in later years (RQ2), multivariable linear regression was employed in a similar fashion after excluding business students. Again, a linear regression is fit for each of the sixteen employability measures with the same control variables. A categorical variable was included indicating whether each student was in their first, second, or later year of study, with the first year of study serving as the reference level in the regressions. To standardise degree progression in each group, part-time students were excluded. A lack of data indicating true degree progression and the historical study load of respondents was a limitation of this work. Thus, the following model was employed to address the second research question (RQ2): $Y_j=\mathit{Z}{\beta }_j^T+{\alpha }_{1,j}\times (\mathrm{Year}2)+{\alpha }_{2,j}\times (\mathrm{Year}3+)+{ϵ}_j$where $\mathit{Z}$ is the matrix of control variables excluding the Stage of Study variable, ${\alpha }_{1,j}$ is the effect associated with students being in the second year of study, and ${\alpha }_{2,j}$ is the effect associated with students being in at least their third year of study. $Y_j$, $j$, ${\beta }_j$ and ${ϵ}_j$ are defined as previously.

Differences in employability measures linked to field of study or degree progression were tested at the 5% level of significance. As the two research questions are associated with sixteen (RQ1) and thirty-two (RQ2) hypothesis tests respectively, the conservative Bonferroni correction (Bland and Altman 1995) correction was used in both cases to control for the rate of type-one errors. Using this correction, a hypothesis test result is considered significant at the 5% level if it is associated with a p-value less than 0.05/16 for RQ1 and 0.05/32 for RQ2.

Results

This section presents the main results of the study. Sixteen regressions were fit to examine differences in the PE of accounting students compared with business students (H1). While the details of all sixteen regressions are provided in the Supplementary Materials, for conciseness only the accounting-specific effects of each model and associated p-values are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Differences in employability beliefs of accounting students versus business students.

Employability Dimension	Accounting Effect (95% CI)	P-Value
Self-awareness (1–6)	−0.0276 (−0.06, 0.01)	0.1414
Program awareness (1–6)	0.0954 (0.06, 0.13)	<0.0001***
Communication skills (1–6)	−0.1179 (−0.15, −0.09)	<0.0001***
Digital and technological literacy (1–7)	0.0237 (−0.01, 0.06)	0.2216
Problem solving and decision making (1–6)	−0.0229 (−0.06, 0.01)	0.1720
Goal-directed behaviour (1–6)	0.0474 (0.01, 0.08)	0.0076
Identification with commitment (1–5)	0.014 (−0.02, 0.05)	0.4268
Reconsideration of commitment (1–5)	0.0525 (0.01, 0.1)	0.0164
Self-esteem (0–3)	−0.0048 (−0.03, 0.02)	0.6655
Academic self-efficacy (1–7)	−0.002 (−0.04, 0.04)	0.9198
Ability and willingness to learn (1–6)	0.0296 (−0.01, 0.06)	0.1001
Perceived program relevance (1–5)	−0.023 (−0.05, 0)	0.0681
Career exploration and awareness (0–9)	−0.0437 (−0.11, 0.02)	0.1794
Occupational mobility (0–9)	0.0249 (−0.04, 0.09)	0.4812
Emotional intelligence (1–5)	−0.053 (−0.07, −0.04)	<0.0001***
Ethical and responsible behaviour (1–6)	−0.0691 (−0.1, −0.04)	<0.0001***

Note: *, **, and *** indicate significance at the Bonferroni-adjusted 5%, 1%, and 0.1% levels respectively.

Accounting students were associated with greater program awareness but lower perceived communication skills, emotional intelligence, and ethical and responsible behaviour. The remaining employability dimensions were not statistically significant, consequently, our results are not consistent with the directionality expressed in hypothesis H1.

Another sixteen regressions were fit to examine differences in the PE of accounting students in their first year of study compared to those in their second year of study or later (H2). To avoid the presentation of misleading results and for conciseness, results are shown only for those employability measures where differences in employability measures related to later study were significant at the 5% level after applying the Bonferroni correction. Results for all regressions and variables can be found in the Supplementary Materials. Table 4 shows the employability dimensions where there was a statistically significant difference between first year students and either second year or later stage students. The effect of study stages on each employability dimension are presented with a 95% confidence interval.

Table 4. Employability beliefs of accounting students across study stages.

Employability Dimension	Study Stage	Stage Effect (95% CI)	P-Value
Self-awareness	Year 2	−0.0703 (−0.18, 0.04)	0.2064
Self-awareness	Year 3+	−0.1123 (−0.18, −0.04)	0.0011*
Program awareness	Year 2	−0.1761 (−0.28, −0.07)	0.0009*
Program awareness	Year 3+	−0.2186 (−0.28, −0.15)	<0.0001***
Reconsideration of commitment	Year 2	0.1890 (0.06, 0.31)	0.0028
Reconsideration of commitment	Year 3+	0.2235 (0.15, 0.30)	<0.0001***
Perceived program relevance	Year 2	−0.1318 (−0.20, −0.06)	0.0003*
Perceived program relevance	Year 3+	−0.1657 (−0.21, −0.12)	<0.0001***
Ethical and responsible behaviour	Year 2	−0.1223 (−0.22, −0.03)	0.0130
Ethical and responsible behaviour	Year 3+	−0.1094 (−0.17, −0.05)	0.0003*

Note: *, **, and *** indicate significance at the Bonferroni-adjusted 5%, 1%, and 0.1% levels respectively.

There were five employability measures for which students in their second year of study or later had significantly different PE than students in their first year of study. Of interest, the significant differences indicate that the later stage students had poorer PE in terms of self-awareness, program awareness, perceived program relevance, and ethical and responsible behaviour. The only numerically positive difference was in terms of reconsideration of commitment, which is semantically negative. Thus, the findings are inconsistent with the direction expressed in hypothesis H2.

Discussion

The results highlight differences in PE measures between accounting and business students as well as between accounting students at different stages of study. Significant differences were found between the two cohorts in terms of program awareness, communication skills, emotional intelligence, and ethical and responsible behaviour. Accounting students were associated with higher program awareness but lower communication skills, emotional intelligence, and ethical and responsible behaviour. In discussing these differences and their implications, it is important to highlight that the data relates to students’ self-perceptions of employability rather than their employability per se.

Notably, the current accounting curriculum incorporates ethical and responsible behaviour (International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), 2019b) and it is unlikely that this consideration reduces the ethical capabilities of students. An alternative explanation is that students feel less confident of their ethical and responsible behaviour due to increased exposure to these topics. Poorer PE along this dimension may be driven by the need to assess rather than assume competence and by student recognition that they have not yet been exposed to real professional ethical dilemmas.

The awareness of real-world professional ethical dilemmas was highlighted in the South African context by Oben and van Rooyen (2023), who found that accounting scandals negatively affect the intentions of pre-university students to pursue accounting careers. Whilst Mistry (2021) suggests early engagement and membership with a professional body is beneficial to developing students’ ethical awareness. Consequently, increased awareness of the importance of ethical behaviour alongside negative media commentary regarding accounting professionals may decrease students’ confidence that they will be able to successfully navigate ethical dilemmas. This may be somewhat mitigated by engagement with the accounting professional bodies throughout degree progression.

The accounting curriculum incorporates the development of professional skills including communication skills (International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), 2019a). Indeed, Carvalho and Almeida (2022) identify communication skills as the ‘most valuable’ professional skill required by future professional accountants (p. 1). Despite its importance, studies by Hassall et al. (2013) and Roberts et al. (2023) highlight that accounting students experience anxiety in relation to communication. Whilst Hassall et al. (2013) call for pedagogical approaches to develop self-efficacy in this area, the call for accounting graduates to possess strong professional skills such as communication skills is not new (Dolce et al., 2020). Twyford and Dean (2023) suggest engaging with students earlier in their degrees to develop professional skills, while Roberts et al. (2023) found the inclusion of a new module (‘The Professional Accountant’) in first-year accounting curriculum fostered improved communication self-efficacy via personal mastery and mentor support. Therefore, our findings support prior research in that further engagement with students to develop communication skills and related self-efficacy is warranted.

Extant research has also considered the emotional intelligence of accounting students. de Bruyn (2023) highlighted that developing emotional intelligence can be beneficial to the development of professional skills. As our results indicate, accounting students report lower perceived emotional intelligence than business students, suggesting that engaging students in the explicit development of emotional intelligence would be beneficial.

Overall, the results highlight that communication skills, emotional intelligence, and ethical and responsible behaviour are employability dimensions in which accounting students feel less confident than their business counterparts. Whether this reflects truly poorer capabilities or reduced confidence, with the latter arguably more likely, initiatives addressing these areas are needed to ensure students feel adequately equipped for their professional careers.

The increased program awareness of accounting students is consistent with greater uncertainty about the accounting profession. If students are truly more aware of their program and its relevance to career, educators have an opportunity to highlight how modifications to their programs are preparing students for professional work in the contemporary labour market. If students are being adequately prepared, there is a need to be explicit about curricular reforms and the demands of the accounting profession.

In contrast to the hypothesised increase in employability beliefs of accounting students as they progressed throughout their degree (RQ2), there were significant negative changes across years of study. Compared to first year accounting students, those in later years reported lower perceived self-awareness, program awareness, program relevance, and ethical and responsible behaviour. They also reported greater reconsideration of commitment, meaning that they were more likely to state that they would change program if they could. Accounting programs at Australian universities are generally accredited by professional accounting bodies² thereby embedding the technical knowledge and professional skills expected of professional accountants.

It is concerning that accounting students report lower PE as they progress through their studies, though the increased reconsideration of commitment finding is similar to the findings of Marriott and Marriott (2003) in the UK. Bennett et al. (2022) found that students’ perceptions of the relevance of their program decreased with each year of study and then increased in the final year, possibly highlighting the difficulties of navigating the complex pathways available to business students. As noted earlier, the Jackson and Wilton (2017) study of PE among business students in both UK and Australia found that students’ career choice certainty increases with each year of study. A notable difference, and one worthy of further research, is that some participants in that study had engaged in WIL during their studies. This is in line with SCCT, which posits that students’ career confidence increases when engaged in activities that develop skills relevant to their chosen career, whether via work experience or study.

Given the structure of accounting curriculum and the opportunity to undertake work experience and internships whilst completing their studies, it was expected in this study that students’ perceptions of program awareness and program relevance would increase across the course of their studies. Our findings may suggest students are finding the link between their degree program and employability to be more tenuous as they progress. Another consideration is that students undertaking work experience may be experiencing praxis shock (Ballantyne, 2007) which may negatively impact their PE and their perceptions of program relevance.

Implications

Overall, our results suggest that more work is needed to engage accounting students in career education throughout their degree. Such initiatives can be multifaceted: for example, Beatson et al. (2024) suggest that engagement initiatives designed to improve accounting students’ self-efficacy and sense of belonging are important to academic success. Similarly, Beatson et al. (2020) argue that improving students’ efficacy beliefs leads to ‘more comprehensive foundational knowledge’ and improved student performance, subsequently contributing ‘better prepared students to the profession thereby increasing the quality of our future accountants’ (p. 1287). Whilst both of these studies were focussed on first year accounting students, they provide insights into the impact of self-efficacy on academic performance – an assertion also of SCCT. Engaging with students earlier in their degrees to explore and build broad efficacy beliefs may increase students’ development of career identity and overall career confidence as they progress through their studies.

Another approach concerns the importance of professional industry bodies to student development. Although not framed in the Australian setting, Mistry (2021) demonstrates enhancement of student employability and professional awareness via engagement with professional bodies early in degree progression. It follows that student membership or increased engagement with the professional industry bodies is one approach which may further develop pre-professional career identity and may build confidence in the areas identified in this study as in need of attention. In line with our findings, Stanley and Xu (2019) highlight the need to increase the opportunities for students to engage with industry and obtain industry experience. However, not all accounting students undertake work experience or internships. Bennett et al. (2020) query whether there is equal access to WIL in programs where internships are unfunded, largely self-sourced and not embedded within programs. This is a concern recognised in the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report which expresses a commitment to foster ‘growth for skills through greater equity’ (Department of Education, 2023, p. 6). An implication for higher education providers is the need to adopt and implement a work-integrated education philosophy within the curriculum such that the ‘design, organisation and implementation of educational experiences in both work and educational settings [is] intended to develop the kinds of capacities graduates will need to become employable’ (Billett, 2022, p. 13).

Whilst challenges exist in embedding WIL opportunities in the accounting curriculum (Stanley & Xu, 2019), Jackson and Meek (2021) outline alternative WIL structures such as digital game-based learning, mentoring programs, problem-based learning approaches, consulting projects, incubator programs, and hackathons; the authors highlight the importance of engagement by industry and professional bodies in facilitating these outcomes. Twyford and Dean (2023) also provide an example of embedding an industry led experience within the accounting curriculum and call for the development of authentic learning experiences and collaboration with industry. Embedding such approaches either for credit in the accredited accounting curriculum or as part of wider university co-curricular requirements may be one way to increase perceived program relevance and PE of accounting students.

Another approach to mitigate student concerns and one which is used effectively within engineering education is to explore ‘possible future selves’ (Bennett & Male, 2017). One application of this approach is to embed a workshop within the curriculum for students to identify the expectations and fears associated with their intended career, gaining strategies for overcoming gaps identified and providing educators with an opportunity to help students understand their possible future roles and professional identity (Male & Bennett, 2015). This approach is an application of SCCT because if students do not believe in their abilities to realise career goals, they may need support and guidance to help understand the relevance of their learning and study program to their identity and future career. This may in turn help to increase engagement and motivation.

The preceding discussion suggests the need to embed into accounting curricula initiatives specifically designed to develop students’ self-efficacy and pre-employment identity, which were found to be lacking relative to business students. Improving accounting students’ PE in these domains may in turn lead to enhanced academic achievement, persistence, and employment outcomes, consistent with established links between such self-beliefs and these outcomes (Turner, 2014; Uwakwe et al., 2023; Wright et al., 2013). As with prior studies, caution is needed when interpreting results based on self-perceptions. As the results relate to students’ PE, the results should not be interpreted as meaning students are less employable; rather, the students report lower confidence in the dimensions of study and career confidence which combine as perceived employability. Further investigation is needed to ascertain why accounting students’ employability perceptions do not increase across degree completion and to see whether students’ PE is borne out in their graduate outcomes.

Limitations

We highlight several limitations of the study. Our data, and therefore main analysis, focus on a student self-assessment of employability. An area of future research is to investigate why accounting students’ reconsideration of commitment increases and perceptions of program awareness and program relevance decrease towards the end of their degree. Incorporating qualitative responses from students would deepen our understanding in this regard. Another limitation is that the study focusses on the Australian setting and the findings may not be generalisable to other geographical settings. Extending the research to other locations would be beneficial in determining whether the results are generalisable, as would investigating other discipline areas within business such as management, marketing, and data analytics.

Further, the data set incorporates the years prior to, during and following COVID-19. Given the time span of our data, our findings are not specific to COVID-19; however, future research may wish to explore and compare later time periods (post COVID-19). Extending the research into later periods would be beneficial to determine whether our results remain consistent as we move further away from the COVID-19 years. Furthermore, such research would be helpful to gauge how student PE and career identity evolve across different economic climates and as AI becomes more entrenched in professional accounting practices.

Another avenue of future research would be to explore the PE of students from disciplines other than accounting and business. Each of these proposed avenues for future research would deepen our understanding of student PE in pursuing accounting or other disciplines at university and would provide additional valuable insights for university career education and associated policy.

Conclusion

Responding to technological disruption and skills shortages experienced by the profession, this study explored the perceived employability (PE) of accounting students within Australian higher education. Specifically, the study investigated whether differences exist in the PE of accounting students when compared with business students, representing an alternative but more general pathway for study, and across years of study within the accounting student cohort. Our study identified employability dimensions in which students lacked confidence, signalling areas for attention and improvement. Of concern, the overall PE confidence of accounting students did not increase across the degree lifecycle. This confirms the need to expose students early in their degrees to career education and student engagement activities that reinforce interest in an accounting career, and which establish a dialogue in which students can talk about their career exploration and concerns.

The key contributions of the study are twofold. Analysis of a multi-institution sample together with comparison to business peers and across degree progression facilitated a new and comprehensive analysis of the PE of accounting students studying at Australian universities. Whilst the focus of the study is Australia, the issues faced by the profession and accounting education are not limited to Australia, and therefore the insights from the study may be of broader interest. Secondly, employing a social cognitive career theory lens to investigate the PE of accounting students extends the emerging literature and highlights that understanding students’ perceptions of employability and related skills is an important element to identifying areas of practice and accounting education that may require attention. Our results provide further evidence for the need for universities and professional bodies to engage more proactively with accounting students throughout their degrees, developing career identity through embedded employability initiatives. The need for more extensive internships, industry exposure and industry partnerships emerges as a pressing need.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The online Employ-ability instrument can be accessed via https://developingemployability.edu.au/. Data are available upon reasonable request.

2 Such as Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia and the Institute of Public Accountants.

Appendix

The dimensions in the Employ-ability measure and accompanying descriptions are given in Table A1.

Table A1. Dimensions in the Employ-ability measure.

Dimension	Scale	Items (count)	Description
Basic literacy (28 items and 4 factors)
Dimensions 1 and 2 are often reported together as ‘Awareness of self and study’
1	Self-awareness 2 items informed by Jackson and Wilton (2017)	3	Awareness of personal strengths and challenges relating to graduate employability
2	Program awareness	4	Perceptions of the degree program in relation to graduate employability
3	Communication skills. Modified version of Coetzee (2014): ‘Communication, leadership and teamwork’.	17	Interactive skills, use of English language and technology when communicating with others and personal efficacy in communicating and interacting with people from diverse cultures, backgrounds and authority levels (Coetzee, 2014).
4	Digital and technological literacy	4	Confidence in the ability to learn and use digital technologies relating to study, work and career planning.
Rhetorical literacy (18 items and 12 factors)
5	Problem solving and decision-making. Coetzee (2014): ‘Problem solving and decision-making skills’.	8	Creativity and proactivity in the process of producing a solution to a recognised problem or problematic situation (Coetzee, 2014)
6	Goal-directed behaviour	10	Ability to achieve goals through goal-directed behaviour.
Critical literacy (55 items and 6 factors)
Dimensions 7 and 8 are often reported together as ‘Career commitment’
7	Identification with commitment. Mancini et al. (2015): ‘Identification with commitment’.	4	Being proud and happy about becoming a professional in the discipline (identification and affirmation). Identification with career and study path.
8	Reconsideration of commitment. Mancini et al. (2015): ‘Reconsideration of commitment’	4	Reconsideration of current career and study commitment.
9	Self-esteem	10	Confidence in one’s ability and value.
10	Academic self-efficacy Modified version of Byrne et al. (2014): ‘Academic self-efficacy’	26	Confidence in the ability to succeed academically.
Occupational literacy (12 items and 2 factors)
11	Ability and willingness to learn Coetzee (2014): ‘Ability and willingness to learn’.	7	Cognitive openness to maintaining their knowledge, skills and abilities (Coetzee, 2014).
12	Perceived program relevance 3 items from Smith et al. (2014).	4	Confidence in the ability to apply knowledge and skills in professional contexts.
13	Career exploration and awareness. Lent et al. (2016): ‘Brief decisional self-efficacy.’	8	Ability to understand and match self-qualities with career and study options.
14	Occupational mobility. Lent et al. (2016): ‘Decisional coping efficacy’.	4	Ability to cope with decisional conflict, such as having a career ‘plan B’.
Emotional intelligence (16 items and 1 factor)
15	Emotional intelligence. Modified version of Brackett et al. (2006).	16	Ability to understand and manage the emotions of self and other people.
Ethical literacy (6 items and 1 factor)
16	Ethical and responsible behaviour. Coetzee (2014): ‘Ethical and responsible behaviour’	6	Behaving ethically and responsibility.