Abstract:

Considering the challenges facing the accounting profession under the impact of geopolitical and economical changes of the last decades, our study aims to identify the main competencies needed for Romanian students to employ in the field of accounting. To achieve our objective, we have prepared a questionnaire that we have disseminated to a sample of 551 Western Romanian students from four major universities with accounting curricula. We have conducted a comparative analysis on the students’ perceptions regarding the importance of various technical and transversal competencies related to their employment chances. The results we have obtained differ according to the students’ level of education, as well as to their employment status. Our findings can be useful to both accounting educators and practitioners, as highly advanced competencies can only be developed through continuing education programs within companies.