IT is part of youth culture, but are accounting undergraduates confident in IT?

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the IT skills reported by UK students on entry to their first year of study for an accounting degree together with preliminary analysis on their perceived changes in IT skills and usage over their first year of study. Despite the folklore that ‘our juniors’ are all IT literate and highly skilled, the results indicate that we are not yet at the stage where we can assume that all students are comfortable and familiar with the aspects of IT which are important for their accounting studies. However, the data also indicates that student's IT skills on entry to university are rising and that at least some of our students may no longer be in need of baseline IT training.