Accounting Careers of Tomorrow: A Comprehensive and Accessible Professional Development Program

This paper describes the Accounting Careers of Tomorrow (ACT) professional development program offered at a large, urban university. ACT is an experiential learning activity hosted at a public accounting firm, where students engage with employees from firms and corporations while immersed in a natural business environment. It provides a free event accessible to working and otherwise underserved students. The six-hour event was developed using experiential learning theory and community stakeholder feedback. It focuses on three key areas: (1) career exploration, (2) professional development, and (3) knowledge of personal and professional ethics. Results indicate that ACT improves students’ knowledge and confidence in these areas, with students especially learning from the mock interview session. This learning strategy discusses current challenges in accounting education, reviews the literature on experiential learning, and documents ACT’s development, implementation, and efficacy. It also provides guidance on how it can be adopted face-to-face, online synchronously, and online asynchronously. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.