Designing a Market-Oriented Accounting Curriculum : A method and an Application with GCC Data

In response to the literature asserting that accounting education is losing its market relevance, this paper presents a method for developing comprehensive sets of required competences by extracting data directly from job advertisements. The proposed method has multiple advantages: (i) it is based on readily available job market data, (ii) it produces sets of ranked knowledge and skills, supported by descriptions (i.e. learning outcomes), (iii) it allows examining an entire range of competences, (iv) it is easily adaptable to any segment of the job market. We examine an application of the proposed method with data from the GCC job market, and report comprehensive sets of market-relevant learning outcomes by career level and specialization. Our findings show several competences that are common for accounting and auditing programs, but also recognize significant number of differentiated competences. Furthermore, the results highlight specific competences at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels