Competency-based education: Challenges and opportunities for accounting faculty

Abstract

With student loans escalating out of control, yet the need for college degrees increasing for entry-level jobs, competency-based education (CBE) is gaining traction with students, universities, and the government as one solution to reducing costs and accelerating degree completion. Universities typically work with specific industry leaders and employers to define competencies geared toward marketable skills, as one goal of CBE is to focus learning on knowledge and skills students can utilize immediately upon entering the workforce (Voorhees, 2001). The flexibility of competency-based education allows students to quickly finish courses through direct assessment of competencies that they may have prior learning experiences in or spend extra time beyond the regular semester if needed for mastery while saving substantially on tuition (Selingo, 2013). Many of these programs target non-traditional students who may have started a business degree but never finished it (Dragoo & Barrows, 2016).

At the same time, accounting organizations, accreditors, and businesses are calling for accounting curriculum changes to incorporate core competencies reflecting the skills that accounting graduates need in the twenty-first century. Lawson et al. (2014), citing the need for accountants to play more significant roles in organizations, emphasized that competencies should be integrated into the curriculum much as they are in organizations. However, competency-based education and curriculum require a paradigm change in teaching and learning that comes with challenges for accounting faculty but also provides opportunities. Knowledge of best practices for CBE from the literature, including experiences of other accounting educators who have developed and implemented competency-based learning into their courses, can ease the transition and foster dialogue about the use of broader CBE concepts in accounting courses.

Burnett (2016) emphasized that CBE focuses on the individual student with interdisciplinary content informed by industry needs. CBE programs, as defined by the Department of Education (DOE), can take different forms. For example, they can include traditional courses, provide a direct assessment of competencies after enrollment, or permit simultaneous enrollment in both a traditional and a CBE course. For example, a course can be administered very much like a traditional course with competencies embedded in the course and achievement based on time and credits earned. However, CBE programs can be radically different, involving direct assessment without regard to seat time or credit hours (Cunningham et al., 2016).

Accounting educators are being urged to focus on competencies learned rather than principles taught. The American Accounting Association (AAA), an organization of accounting educators, has called for the integration of core competencies across the accounting curriculum in response to the increasingly complex global environment of the twenty-first century (Lawson et al., 2014). The International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), which develops standards for members of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), an international accounting organization, has endorsed a broad framework of competencies in accounting education, training, and certification programs (Borgonovo et al., 2019).

While slow to change, the educational system has taken some tentative steps toward responding to the call for competency-based education that provides students with marketable skills desired by industry. As competency-based education grows, the knowledge gained from research on best practices can play an essential role in helping to improve the curriculum in all educational fields. There is every reason to believe that the future of education will include courses that are flexible to the needs of non-traditional students and represent significant cost savings. While not for every student, there is a need for adults who have substantial work experience to move through course material at their own pace, saving valuable time and money (Selingo, 2013). Proper screening of potential students is necessary to ensure that they are a good fit for these programs.

As these examples illustrate, accounting faculty using established frameworks from professional accounting organizations have successfully developed competency-based accounting classes that meet the needs of students entering the profession. Faculty need adequate training and development in competency-based education to overcome the challenges of adopting broader competency-based education concepts, such as direct assessment, into their courses, but there would also be substantial benefits to students and faculty. As the literature illustrates, leveraging technology is critical not only for instruction but also for transparent assessment of competencies that meet accreditation and financial aid requirements. Changing the accounting curriculum to competencies learned rather than just knowledge taught will not be easy but is necessary to prepare students with the skills that the profession requires and their future careers demand. As Daigle et al. (2007) put it so well, shifting the focus in accounting to teaching competencies is like the adage of “teaching a man to fish” rather than just giving him a fish (p. 151).

No conflicts of interest exist.