A large stream of research in accounting education
has tried to identify some important skills
that accountants must have. Lin et al. (2005)
investigated the perceptions of Chinese accounting
practitioners, teachers, and students on the
required knowledge, skills, and pedagogy for
accounting education. The authors concluded
that accounting practitioners emphasize written
and oral communication skills, a relatively weak
area that should be strengthened in Chinese accounting
education. Survey evidence from Dutch
practitioners (Bots et al., 2009) indicates that
there may be three groups of competencies: basic,
advanced and highly advanced. Basic competencies
need to be present at graduation (e.g. written
communication), advanced some years after the
start of the career (e.g. financial management)
and the highly advanced skills may be needed for
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) candidates (e.g.
project management).