How Professional Accountants Learn in the Workplace: A Structured Literature Review

Accountants must master a considerable body of highly complex knowledge to attain the level of professional proficiency required to comply with accounting standards and uphold their public responsibility. Postsecondary education and professional certification bodies provide only a portion of the technical knowledge that accountants need to perform, while a significant amount of learning occurs in the workplace. By conducting a systematic literature review, we organize the identified research into topical areas using an established learning framework. Given the importance of workplace learning for the profession, the outcomes of this review are twofold: first, to synthesize and critically assess the literature on how accountants, across all areas of practice, learn outside of educational programs, and second, to identify avenues for future research in this domain. Our findings suggest that research on workplace training continues to be important for both novice and experienced accountants given the rapid advancements in technology, regulatory updates, and emerging areas. We also encourage more research to examine workplace learning in areas outside of audit and assurance.