A commentary on learning objectives for accounting education programs: The importance of soft skills and technical knowledge

Position statements on accounting education have generally called for an increased emphasis on developing students’ so-called soft skills in the hope that accounting graduates will be more well-rounded and productive professionals. Many accounting education programs and individual faculty members have responded to these position statements with efforts to develop, for example, students’ communication skills, ability to think critically, and ethical awareness. Largely missing from the accounting education literature has been a discussion of whether soft skills can effectively be taught or developed at the undergraduate level and whether accounting faculty members are trained or equipped to assume this responsibility. In addition, given the constrained number of credit and contact hours, efforts to develop soft skills have largely been made at the expense of covering important technical material. This paper addresses these issues and further questions the balance between soft skill development and coverage of technical accounting knowledge. Although not a zero sum proposition, it is clear that as emphasis on soft skills development increases there has to be a decreased emphasis on technical issues given the class time constraints. It should be noted that we do not take the position that developing soft skills is not important or desirable. Instead, we focus on how accounting faculty members, given their expertise, can best use the limited time they have to educate our students and to prepare them for careers as accounting professionals.