Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ACCOUNTING EDUCATION
by
and
SEAN McCARTNEY
education
ABSTRACT
The paper suggests that competences are not enough, and that
what is required - meta-competence - can be learned but cannot be
taught. Meta-competence is the overarching ability under which
competence shelters. They are the higher order abilities which have
to do with being able to learn, adapt, anticipate and create. Meta-
competences are a pre-requisite for the development of capacities
such as judgement, intuition and acumen upon which competences
are based and without which competences cannot flourish.
The authors suggest that before syllabuses are created for the
teaching of competence-based learning to accounting students,
issue should be taken to confront the problematic nature of such
teaching, should the existence of meta-competence be ignored.
education
INTRODUCTION
accountants.
being looked at, and worked on, by the ACCA, CIPFA and CIMA are
student.
COMPETENCES
perform their roles effectively, and which are capable of fair and
impartial assessment.
that the onus for providing evidence of competence lies with the
candidate, that this will come from more than one source, and that
competent - that is, that he or she has sufficient skill and knowledge
pp 191-192).
* an ability to do
document states:
key role is stated, which gives in general terms, the purposes of the
as our example:
The key roles are then divided into units which describe the major
external obligations
financial data to
and data
client
engagements.
occasion:
the client.
every occasion:
ACCA booklet states, one can find this kind of detailed description of
confidence that it has managed to capture, once and for all, all
those competences any individual will need to become a practising
accountant.
knowledge.
this view - for instance, Alvesson, 1992, Schön 1987, Starbuck, 1985
- and with researchers putting forward the view that the study of
management and its related disciplines is very different from the
not fact and proof (Lindblom and Cohen, 1979). But competences
are being viewed as fact and proof and the ACCA and the other
levels which the MCI and the professional accounting bodies appear
META-COMPETENCE
which competences are based and which have to do with being able
to learn, adapt, anticipate and create, rather than with being able to
abilities, skills, and capacities which exist above and beyond any
such capacities, because they are dynamic and interactive are not
TABLE 1 META-COMPETENCES
Cognitive: * analytical thinking
* pattern recognition (ability to identify
patterns
and key issues in data or information)
* technical expertise
* use of concepts (ability to use abstract
concepts)
Influencing: * interpersonal sensitivity
* concern with personal impact
* use of influence strategies
* relationship building
* organizational awareness (understanding
the
power relationships within organizations)
so taught.
STUDENT
understanding.
work activity.
the financial statements prepared by the directors show "a true and
fair view". The auditor will plan the audit in the light of prior
which enable the formation of the opinion. These then inform the
other tasks, for example, the nature and quantity of the evidence to
approach may specify that "The auditor must collect relevant and
audit opinion." This is no doubt true. The competent auditor will not
must do more than get their facts right, because to praise historians
and contain "... all that there is to be knowed ..." in order for an
action whose legitimacy was once taken for granted. The attempt
1989).
feelings. Burgoyne (1989, p 61) points out that the qualitative nature
creativity.
travelling too fast for them to jump off and abandon the journey
REFERENCES