Menlo Park, Calif. - The academic world is doing its part to groom future accountants for the new business environment, according to a survey from Accountemps, a division of Robert Half International Inc.
Seventy-one percent of chief financial officers polled said that today's accounting graduates are equally or more prepared for their careers compared to those entering the field a decade ago.
Accountemps, a specialized staffing service for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals, developed the survey, which was conducted by an independent research firm. The responses are from 1,400 chief financial officers, all from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with more than 20 employees.
The findings are part of the firm's Next Generation Accountant initiative, which examines how today's trends will shape the future of accounting and finance.
Chief financial officers were asked, "In your opinion, how prepared are today's accounting graduates for careers in accounting and finance compared to 10 years ago?"
The majority answered "equally" prepared (29 percent), followed by "somewhat more" prepared (23 percent) and "much more" prepared (19 percent). Only 9 percent answered "somewhat less" or "much less" prepared."Colleges and universities are responding to a changing accounting landscape," said Accountemps chairman Max Messmer, in a statement. "More courses are being offered in areas such as internal audit, enterprise risk management, forensic accounting, information technology and business ethics."
