Accounting graduates skills and employers’ needs : the Saudi case

Abstract EN

The current study aims to explore the skills needed for accounting graduates as expected by employers in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and to rank those skills based on their level of importance.

A questionnaire was developed and distributed to the heads of accounting and internal audit departments in Saudi listed companies as they are responsible for hiring new employees.

The results of the statistical analysis showed that Saudi employers considered most of the skills that were mentioned in the questionnaire as important skills and ranked them based on their importance level as follows (beginning with the most important):Critical Reasoning and Thinking, Problem and Decision Analysis, Oral Presentation and Communication, Team Working, Business Ethics, Time Management, Negotiation, Written Communication, Computer, Planning, Leadership, and finally, Internet Research Skills, respectively.

Also, the results indicate that employers consider Leadership, rittenCommunication, Negotiation, and Ethics asmore important for auditing jobs than pure accounting jobs.