Accounting Students Meet Real World Via Partnering Project

The Accounting Information Systems (AIS) course contained in the accounting curriculum of many universities is a course that for many institutions still lacks definition and standardization: accounting academicians do not agree on which topics should be taught in the AIS course. Compared to other accounting courses such as Auditing, the AIS course lacks the tradition that time tends to bring to a given course syllabus. The AIS course allows the professor to experiment with new and different teaching methods. This article discusses how an educational partnership between the classroom and local businesses can provide valuable training to accounting students. Specifically the article describes an experimental class project resulting in a bridge being built between the accounting classroom and the real world. * Educational Objectives Regardless of how experimental a class project might be, it should attempt in material ways to satisfy certain educational objectives. Bloom identified six areas of cognitive educational objectives. [1] Knowledge can be defined as the behavior emphasizing the remembering, either by recognition or recall, of ideas. Comprehension represents the understanding of the literal message contained in a communication. Application is similar to comprehension but demonstrates that a student will correctly use knowledge that has already been comprehended. Analysis emphasizes the breakdown of the material into its individual parts and study of the way they are organized. Synthesis is putting together the elements and parts so as to form a whole. Bloom suggests that the area of synthesis most clearly provides the learner an ability for creative expression. Evaluation allows judgements to be made about the value, for some purpose, of ideas, works, solutions, etc. Evaluation is regarded as being at a relatively late stage in a process that involves some combination of all the other areas. Thus, evaluation, to many, represents an end process in dealing with cognitive behaviors. Upper-level accounting courses such as AIS should attempt to help students meet the evaluation objective. * College/Corporate Partnerships For some time, companies, including public accounting firms, have realized that there is a mismatch between the skills their new employees have and the skills needed for success within the firm. Despite all the attention that has been given to partnerships in education in recent years, [2] this mismatch of skills is believed to be widening. Many corporations and public accounting firms are skeptical about the value of the traditional training provided by colleges and universities. [3] To help combat this problem, more than 1,000 colleges and universities now offer training programs, often called “shadow education systems” for corporations. Harkins suggests that if these shadow programs are to be successful, colleges must develop close working relationships with corporations in providing training services. The additional training and developing of employees make it possible for a corporation to streamline management by raising skill levels and moving employees toward earlier job mastery. Thus, the advantages of these programs to businesses are great, particularly to those small firms not able to afford a training staff or facility. But what if new college graduates possessed higher skill levels from the outset? Would the same degree of training be required after the new employee came to the firm? Is it possible for colleges to integrate many of the advantages of these partnerships into the existing accounting curriculum in such a way that will result in a higher-quality, entry-level accountant? This article describes one partnership program utilizing students in an AIS course that had the objective of providing employers with such an employee. * Background on AIS Courses Historically, AIS courses first appeared in accounting curriculums in the late 1960s