Beyond The Knowledge: developing employability skills within Accounting degree pathways

This paper assesses the feedback obtained from running for the first time a replacement unit for two former workshop units, which included ‘The Knowledge’. The ‘Financial Professionals’ Toolbox’ unit takes essential academic and IT workshop matter and builds upon this with focussed tasks designed to enhance employability skills. These include an exercise providing students the opportunity to work in groups to research a business idea and present their business plan to their peers, where an element of self-assessment is included. Learners are also required to research and analyse the contextual role of today’s working accountant. Feedback has been obtained from students in the form of questionnaires and from a recorded focus group exercise. It is hoped that further ideas to develop the programme, both for accounting and other disciplines, will be explored, thereby supporting the PBS Strategic Plan’s focus on employability and independent learning skills.