January 2000

AICPA Core Competency Framework the Focus of Educators' Conference

Viewpoint

The AICPA's new Core Competency Framework for Entry into the Accounting Profession was the primary theme of the Institute's 1999 Accounting Educators' Conference, held November 1213 in Framingham, Mass.

Viewed as an extension of the Vision Project, the Core Competency Framework (CCF) is designed to aid schools, employers, and prospective students. While CCF is still emerging, its basic structure of three broad competency areas--functional, personal, and broad business perspective--is in place. The framework indicates the AICPA's view of the importance of technology by its inclusion in all three competency areas.

Functional competencies are the technical skills related to providing value-added accounting services. These include decision modeling, risk analysis, measurement, reporting, research, and technology use. Personal competencies reflect the attitudes and behaviors needed for professional success, including professional demeanor, problem solving and decision making, interaction, leadership, communication, project management, and the ability to leverage technology. Broad business perspective competencies reflect the environment in which CPAs work. These include strategic and critical thinking; industry/sector, international/global, and legal/regulatory perspectives; resource management; marketing/client focus; and technology applications.

Schools can utilize CCF as a guide to restructure their programs: One conference speaker discussed how his school uses the framework to assess its curriculum and to identify areas in need of improvement. Both employers and prospective students should look for schools whose curriculum aligns with CCF.

The framework presents a challenging approach to upgrading accounting curricula to reflect the needs of the profession in the next century. Other CCF-related presentations at the conference included discussion of implementation of the Vision, providing technology competence, and competency-based learning. Educators attending the conference were very interested in CCF and would have welcomed more coverage.

Continuing development of CCF will include a "best practices" section on classroom techniques and an evaluation tool to help schools assess how their programs meet the desired competencies.

Another popular topic at the conference was a report on the work of the AICPA/NASBA Computerization Implementation Committee for the CPA exam. A practice analysis currently is under way to assess the skills and competencies needed by an entry-level CPA. The eventual goal is a fully computerized exam, available frequently (though perhaps not on demand) and able to test a broad range of skills and knowledge. The AICPA/NASBA committee hopes to implement the new exam by 2003.

A standard presentation at the conference consists of six new instructional cases jointly developed by educators and practitioners. This year's cases dealt with topics such as assessing performance measures, personal financial planning, fraud, and derivatives. Each author presented his or her case in detail and distributed extensive teaching notes. These cases offer something that conference participants can immediately apply in their classes, and the wide range of topics provides something for virtually every course in the curriculum.

The conference was perhaps the AICPA's best educators' conference to date and was enthusiastically received. Participants are already looking forward to next year's conference.

For further information on the CCF and the CPA exam computerization project, see the Just for Educators section on http://www.aicpa.org. *

Ronald J. Huefner is a member of the NYSSCPA board of directors, the Executive Committee, and the Chapter Relations Committee. He is a professor in the accounting and law department of the State University of New York at Buffalo.