2004 NACE Excellence Awards
Educational Programming—Employer Winner
Educational Competency Assessment Web Site
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
Today’s students need a large amount of information and skills to transition to their professional careers. And educators are charged with ensuring that students are equipped to handle the challenges they will face in their professional careers.
To assist educators in integrating the skills-based competencies needed by entry-level accounting professionals and provide evaluation and educational strategy resources, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) developed the Educational Competency Assessment web site (www.aicpa-eca.org).
“One of the reasons we’re addressing the skills is that students have a wealth of knowledge, but their skill development may not be at the point it should be,” explains Joseph Bittner, academic and career development manager for the AICPA. “The competencies are grouped in three areas: personal, functional, and business skills. Many educators send students to this web site, so they know what will be expected of them in the classroom and in the business world.”
The web site consists of two main areas: the library and the organizers. The library contains the Core Competency Framework, a data base of the skill-based competencies developed by the AICPA, and additional related information about the competencies, such as competency levels and elements. The library also houses the Education Strategies Database, which provides information and suggestions regarding effective strategies to help students develop a particular competency, and other information and examples to assess student performance and evaluate competencies coverage.
The site has two organizers: the Assessing Student Performance (ASP) Organizer and the Evaluating Competency Coverage (ECC) Organizer. The ASP Organizer guides educators through gathering, analyzing, and using assessment information to determine how well students are developing the AICPA’s Core Competencies. The ECC Organizer takes educators through gathering, analyzing, and using information to determine the degree to which the AICPA’s Core Competencies are covered in accounting courses and across the accounting programs.
The site is free and all the information educators and departments input is confidential and propriety.
“The information on this web site is really a resource that is designed to help educators who place an emphasis on getting students to ‘think’ rather than learn by rote means,” Bittner says.
