Employability and Skill Development - Assignment Example

Skills Development Skills Development Introduction Employability is a mix of skills, experience, mindset, knowledge, and attitudes that are essential for employment. They involve transferable skills that relate to the capability of researching and analyzing issues, self-management skills, and organizational skills. Additionally, aspects of mindset involving determination, tenacity, and confidence are prudent. Further, it is the situation of being aware of the employers’ needs and understanding the best way to tailor oneself and match their targets. It is characterized by identification of personal strengths and being cognizant of how best you are at telling the probable employer about them (Murdock and Scutt, 2007). Additionally, it is a task of knowing your personal weaknesses, coming up with plans of action on how you can improve them (Lumley and Wilkinson, 2014, p.1). Lumley and Wilkinson (2014, p.1) add that there are more graduates looking for jobs, therefore, a person needs to have distinct features in order to stand out of the crowd. Graduates need to provide distinctive evidence that they not only possess transferable skills, but also special kind of mindsets. Basically, a key factor for employment is a person’s mindset, which is characterized by varied attitudes that are often demonstrated through a range of activities. For example, the extracurricular activities that people engage in. Richard (2009, p.7) advises that, the development of accounting staff should not be neglected as this can be a long term detriment to a business. Employability and Skill Development The fresh graduate’s portfolio needs to have a multiple knowledge base with a range of skills that are acquired through the university curriculum and then consolidated by practice. Indeed, a variety of technical skills assist professional accountants to satisfy their employers by conducting their work efficiently and effectively. Essentially, functional and technical skills involve a range of general skills and skills that are specifically tailored to the field of accountancy. The skills required include, risk analysis and decision making, numeracy skills, measurement skills, reporting skills, and compliance with regulatory and legislative necessities (Oussii and Klibi, 2013, p119). The accounting profession has faced a close scrutiny due to failure of high-profile corporates, globalization, and mutable technologies. As a result, more employers are in quest of a diverse range of attributes and skills as a requirement to offer employment (Kavanagh and Drennan, 2008, p. 280). Kavanagh and Drennan (2008, p. 280) assert that, the employment sector is putting more performance expectations on university graduates thus challenging them to have a broad range of skills and be committed to enhance their professional development. Employers worldwide are on the lookout for employees who are able to take a task and deliver quality results. Therefore, to be competent employees, students start preparing early enough from the experiences they acquire while in schools, colleges, and universities (Finch and Fafinski, 2014, p. 25). Further, employers need graduates that are reliable, dependable, those that have the initiative to learn and ask for more information and are able to figure things out on their own. The initiative of skill development is starts immediately when students begin working on their school assignments (Gallagher, 2013, p. 33). The situation is enhanced since the students are able to gain knowledge, ability to design and organize their work. From the assignments administered, students are capable of understanding and analyzing basic requirements. In addition, they learn how to find and utilize the information needed in their assignments, it is also noted that, students acquire planning abilities and organizational capabilities (Knight and Yorke, 2004, p. 36). Moreover, as students carry on with their assignments, they develop the ability to catch up with deadlines and analytically solve problems (Learning and Information Services, 2013). In finding accurate information and at the right time, research is fundamental to ensure the development of skills such as information literacy and information technology. These skills are valuable to graduates since they help in sourcing information and provide reports, which are critical in the process of decision making. Information literacy and information technology skills are crucial to keep abreast of the activities and updates that concern an employee’s field. Therefore, in the dynamic and mutable job markets, graduates should be proactive for them to be aware and sail with new advances in learning better skills. Assertiveness and self-confidence need inculcation into oneself to suit in the contemporary job recruitment context. Graduate employers need employees who can make good team players by possessing excellent leadership qualities. Most jobs are tailor-made to suit specific dispositions. Therefore, it is paramount to recognize strengths about the ideal role within the workplace context (Learning and Information Services, 2013). Colleges and universities are heralding key points towards group skill development, for example, students are grouped and assigned group work to handle and present as a group. The situation helps the students to develop various skills to nurture them towards their professions. The skill presented in group work involve, leadership, negotiating, interpersonal skills, listening skills, and self-confidence (Winstanley, 2005). During group presentations, students are able to showcase their knowledge in IT skills, communication, listening, and self-reliance skills. Further, this situation gives the students an extra task of modeling themselves in terms of ability how presentable (in terms of dressing) they ought to be in the workplace. Enhancement of skills through examinations is an imperative method to instill and develop employability skills. Through preparation for examinations, students learn how to useful techniques in organizing and memorizing their work. Organizing information in the workplace is a vital component of an employee, this helps to building expertise and a wider base of knowledge. Consequently, this skill helps employees to take accreditation examinations within the workplace, and to develop their professions. Through taking examinations, students are able to acquire skills in memorizing and remembering, problem resolving and other analytical skills, working under pressure and intellectual capabilities. These skills are highly regarded within the workplace since strict deadlines are to be met, specific strategies to be analyzed and creative measures to be undertaken to remedy the threatening job environments. Skills acquired during internship placements act as a continuum of job-related learning. Students get exposed to real work situations where they engage with experienced workers and learn how to handle issues concerning their professions. Moon (2006) notes that work-based learning initiatives are created to ensure that more students get attached to various types of organizations to ensure that they acquire relative experiences. He asserts that, with increased employability skill consciousness, and advent of basic degrees in the United Kingdom, more work initiatives are emerging to offer work experience. Further, students who are not placed by their own institutions may decide to volunteer to gain experience. The students at times land on jobs that are not related to their professions. The situations often pose a challenge leading the students develop strategies to maneuver through. In the end, there exists an added technical skill that can be used to source for employment. IT Skills as Part Modern Business Skills Information technology is essential to business success because it directly affects the business mechanisms that are used to create and capture value to enhance profits (Drnevich and Croson, 2013, p. 483). The restructured business environment defines the crucial changes that an organization makes in terms of structure, departments, goods and services, accounting, and strategic objectives. The technological and economic changes especially information technological advancements have been applied to a greater extent in changing the work environment and the overall management of businesses. In competitive business environments, management accounting comes in handy to assist the managers in making consistent, strategic, and logical decisions by using models and instruments that offer financial information. Therefore, accounting information needs integration into the business environments to provide for fast, efficient, and effective results to problems in accounting (Kloviene and Gimzauskiene, 2014, p. 59). Offering IT skills to the business environment helps the certified professionals to be more credible and gain confidentiality when dealing with daily clients. It also brings aboard business-technology experts and advisors who substantially bridge the gap between the management and the Information Technology sector. By awarding the professionals who have fulfilled the requirements of IT with certificates enables one to execute information technology services confidentially. Further, the skills acquired include those that help in the provision of technological advice to the management and life skills through interaction in conferences and varied engaging activities (Eileen, 2002, p. 45). MS Excel and Sage 50 in Accounting Management and Financial Management MS Excel Activity-based costing has been traditionally used as an approach to calculate and determine costs in relation to services and products in the business environment. It is based on an assumption that costs are caused when resources are consumed. Consequently, business enterprises need to be aware not to “miss costing” the products and services. Miss-costing occurs when drivers that are supposed to identify and trace activities that are related to volume fail. In turn, this causes a miss in the costing process leading to losses within an organization. Since the invention of computers, several software has been created to ease the burden of costing. Computer-based excel software is known to offer a wide range of benefits to a business environment. For example, spreadsheets has the power to help the managers make viable, consistent, and logical decisions. In relation to management and accounting, the use of spreadsheets enables the learners to identify and integrate attributes that are crucial to the business environment. For example, analytical skills where a student analyzes the data and then prepares a spreadsheet that can address the problems of costing (Ringelstein, 2009, p.26). It is also critical to the learners as they are capable to learn and apply the accounting knowledge that is acquired through the use of MS Excel. Additionally, students learn computing skills allowing them to demonstrate their competence in relation to information technology. Further, a student acquires communication skills that are used in the analysis of report generated by the spreadsheets. In turn, the students are tailored to be of benefit to the business environment in solving accounting related problems (Ringelstein, 2009, p.26). Sage Software The Sage 50 software is one of the most important computer software that have been developed to offer an integrated approach to personal and business challenges. The application is developed with residential suite module that offer aid to the estate managers, this can be done as the package can track tax credits of houses. Additionally, the Sage package helps to reduce data redundancy and enhance tracking and issuance of certifications. It is imperative to affirm that, the software also facilitates reporting as it contains more than 500 standardized and customizable reports. Users can easily generate reports by running report queries, this systems allows easy reporting and eliminates time wasting (Finch, 2011). Additionally, Sage can be used to receive and post invoices, get and allocate credit, track and pay suppliers, and recording all bank entries (Kelly, 2012, p.129). These tools of analysis help in the consolidation of data, this allows the ease of grouping columns and rows to express diversified dimensions and aggregation levels, and the aggregation level of change that is applied for optimum granularity for data analysis (Soares et al., 2008, p8). Many companies use excel applications for inventory, processing and analysis of the information regarding the company’s transactions. During the business seminars, I was able to use Microsoft Excel to organize and process the data quickly, thoroughly, and accurately. In addition, the components for data extraction, aggregation and analysis brought value to the Accounting management activities during the entire period of the seminar. I was able to demonstrate my skills through spreadsheets and use the graphics section provided in the Sage interface.I was capable of learning some technical applications of the Sage 50 package in regard to financial management. Although the application seemed a bit complex, it offers a great range of opportunities in the management of firm finances (Kelly, 2013). For firms to make and track down their activities, they need to stay current with all the customer needs, and be able to minimize the inputs while maximizing the outputs. There is need for integration of Microsoft Excel and Sage 50 applications in the fields of Business Accounting, Management, and Business Finance, to offer efficient, effective, and maximal outputs. The seminars and the interactions were an awesome experience. Conclusion In the global context, professional reports are imperative to every organization as they offer the insight to what is happening in an organization. Despite the vast benefits accrued from the use of accounting, accounting education is seen to over-emphasize the technical capabilities of graduates without regarding their competencies. Therefore, it is core to find alternative strategies for example, case-based methods, simulations, and role-plays to engage learners in the knowledge-gaining process and develop their creative and critical thinking skills. Bibliography Drnevich, P. L., and Croson, D. C. 2013. Information technology and Business-Level Strategy: Toward an Integrated theoretical Perspective. MIS Quarterly, 37(2). 483 Eileen, C. 2002. Accountants tally IT skills. InformationWeek, 2002 (902). ProQuest Central. Fallows, Stephen and Steven, Christine., 2013. Integrating Key Skills in Higher Education: Employability, Transferable Skills and Learning for Life. London: Routledge Finch, C. (2011). Sage beginners guide unlock the full potential of Sage for simplifying and automating mathematical computing. Birmingham, UK, Packt Publications. Finch, Emily and Fafinski, Stefan. 2014. Employability Skills for Law Students. Oxford: Oxford University Press Gallagher, K. (2013). Skills development for business and management students: study and employability. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Kavanagh, M. H., and Drennan, L. 2008. What Skills and Attributes does an accounting graduate need? Evidence from student perceptions and employer expectations. Accounting and finance 48 (2008) Kelly, J. (2013). Sage 50 accounts for dummies, UK edition. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Kelly, J. 2012. Sage 50 accounts for dummies. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Kloviene, L., and Gimzauskiene, E. 2014. Development of accounting system according to an information technology. Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 2014 (2) Knight, Peter and Yorke, Mantz., 2004. Learning, Curriculum and Employability in Higher Education. New York: Psychology Press Learning and Information Services, 2013. Employability Skills from referencing and IT. Wolverhampton: University of Wolverhampton. [online]. Available at: [Accessed April 11, 2015] Lumley, M., and Wilkinson, J. 2014. Developing employability for business. Oxford: University of Oxford. Moon, J. A, 2006. A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. Murdock, Alexander and Scutt, Carol N., 2007. Personal Effectiveness. London: Routledge Oussii, A. A., and Klibi, A. F. 2013. Skills and Attitudes Needed for Success in Accounting Career: Do Employer’s Expectations Fit with Students’ Perceptions? Evidence from Tunisia. International Journal of Business and Management 8(8), p119. Richard, P. 2009. Accountant’s skill the crucial ingredient. Intheblack, 79(4) p7 Ringelstein, D. 2009. An Activity-Based Costing Assessment Task: Using an Excel Spreadsheet. e-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching, 3(1) p26. Soares, C., Peng, Y., Meng, J., Eashio, T., and Zhou, Z. H. 2008. “Applications of data Mining in E-Business and Finance: Introduction,” Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications: Applications of Data Mining in E-Business and Finance, IOS Press. Winstanley, D. (2005). Personal effectiveness: a guide to action. London, Chartered: Institute of Personnel and Development Read More