Mind the gap: employers' and students' perceptions of skills and knowledge needed by accounting graduates in Greece

This chapter examines the perceptions of employers and students regarding the skills and knowledge needed for entry into the accounting profession in Greece. Set against the backdrop of a significant recession, interview conducted with employers and students revealed a gap between what each group expected with regard to skills and knowledge. The study also showed that employers and students had different views about how much universities could teach as part of the accounting curriculum and how much was innate to individuals. A mixture of skills related to specific accounting roles and more generic transferable skills were found to be desirable. The economic climate at the time of the research was also significant and had an impact on the skills required by employers operating in a volatile market. The chapter concludes by proposing that employability should be approached not through fragmentation into separate skills and attributes but though a more comprehensive framework embracing both formal and informal experiences.

This is a draft chapter/article. The final version is available in How to Enable the Employability of University Graduates edited by Hansen, S. and Daniels, K. published in 2023, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781803926513.00019

The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only.