Improving the Early Employment Experience of Accountants: Issues Statement No. 4.

Abstract This article focuses on Issues Statement No. 4 of the Accounting Education Change Commission which deals with the improvement in the early employment experience of accountants. The purpose of improving the academic preparation of accountants is to serve jointly the interests of accounting graduates, their employers, and those who rely on their work. The profession's economic environment constrains the options available to improve the early employment experience. Recommendations to improve the early employment experience cannot succeed unless they are in the interest of the parties that must take recommended actions. Fortunately, the parties who affect the early employment experience have an interest in improving it. This is most obvious in the case of students, but no less so in the case of employers. Satisfied personnel are more productive, and disgruntled personnel undermine the teamwork needed to perform today's accounting. Faculty are already engaged in helping students prepare for success in accounting careers. Measures that can help graduates prosper in the work environments they enter should therefore engage professors' interests and are consistent with the purposes of the curricular reform activity they are pursuing with the encouragement of the Commission.