Developing Pervasive Skills in a Postgraduate Accountancy Programme Outside the Box

Universities and the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) demand pervasive skills, such as critical thinking, from their postgraduate accountancy students to ensure they are ready for the workplace. However, the stress and time pressure experienced by lecturers in accountancy programmes are greater than before, as they must lecture on the theoretical content and advance the required skills during formal lecturing time. The action research method that brings together action and reflection in the pursuit of practical solutions was applied in this study. Accountancy lecturing staff are not necessarily experts in all these pervasive skills. An accountancy department at a local university tapped into the notion of interprofessional education involving collaboration among professionals from different disciplines to enhance skills development. By drawing from Dewey’s theory of experiential learning, focusing on active learning experiences and avoiding single-solution scenarios, learning interventions were designed in collaboration with experts outside the accountancy department to develop some pervasive skills. During a skills development day, termed ‘Amazing Explorations’, all students in the postgraduate chartered accountancy class (111 students) had the opportunity to participate in these interventions outside the classroom. Afterwards, using convenience sampling, 103 students’ perceptions were obtained through open-ended and closed-ended questionnaires. The feedback from the students was exceptionally positive. Students felt that the interventions done by non-accountancy experts developed some pervasive skills. Additional workshops to further develop students’ skills followed as a result. The positive outcome of this chapter indicates that interventions from non-accountancy professionals can contribute to the development of pervasive skills among postgraduate chartered accountancy students, underscoring Dewey’s theory of situating learning in different contexts through active participation. On a practical level, the interventions developed in this study can serve as a valuable resource for accountancy educators needing to develop their students’ pervasive skills using new and innovative methods to meet the high demands of the profession.