Employability Skills: Enhancing Career Opportunities in Accounting Industry

The report focuses on identifying personal skills and enhancing career opportunities in the accounting industry. It discusses job clusters, transferrable skills, industry requirements and trends, gap analysis, and SWOT analysis. The report also includes a personal evaluation and recommendations for improvement.

Running head: EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Table of Contents
Section 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Section 2: My job cluster.................................................................................................................2
1. Appropriateness of the job cluster...........................................................................................2
2. Key transferrable skills............................................................................................................3
2.1 Personal soft skills.............................................................................................................3
2.2 Technological skills...........................................................................................................3
Section 3: Industry requirements and trends...................................................................................3
Section 4..........................................................................................................................................7
Section 5........................................................................................................................................11
1. Gap Analysis..........................................................................................................................11
A. Gaps in the critical skills...................................................................................................11
B. Career readiness................................................................................................................11
2. SWOT....................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Appendix........................................................................................................................................14

2EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Section 1: Introduction
The change in the business environment has enhanced the expectations of the employers
from their current employees or the new recruits that the organizations might undertake for the
suitable growth and expansion. The capabilities of the graduates help in identifying the different
key aspects of employability under the different systems that are designed by the businesses.
Changing trends of the market structures has helped in maintaining a steady growth of the
organizational expectancy as per the requirements of the businesses while operating in the
competitive markets.
The purpose of undertaking the report is focused on the identification of the personal
skills and the manner in which it helps in enhancing the chances of being employed in different
job profiles. The report will be discussing the chief skills that will be helping in developing the
personal insight and thereby take steps for enhancing the opportunities of potential future
careers. The report will be enumerating the different personality types and skills that are inherent
in an individual and thereby emphasize on the strengths and weaknesses of the individual.
Section 2: My job cluster
1. Appropriateness of the job cluster
I have chosen “The Informers” from the seven available job clusters that are prevailing
in Australia. I pursued my academic course on accountancy and thereby looked forward to
include myself in a business environment helping the same through consultation practices to
enhance the performance of the same while operating as per the objectives of its continuous
growth and expansion.

3EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
2. Key transferrable skills
The key transferrable skills that are inherited by the candidates helps in establishing the
proper transmission of the knowledge on a specific field in different outsets. It helps in managing
the knowledge of the organization and thereby pass on the same through communication. The
transmission of the experiences helps organizations and individuals in enhancing the processes.
In this section, the chief transferrable skills are being depicted which would be helping to bring
forth improvements while emphasizing on the job cluster that I am aiming to get involved in.
2.1 Personal soft skills
The personal soft skills that might be imbibed by ‘The Informers’ are verbal and non-
verbal communication which would be helping the candidates in maintaining a steady
functioning of the systems of the business while operating in different organizational structures.
The skill will be helping me to interact with my fellow colleagues and subordinates as well as the
management of the business to facilitate the smooth performance of the enterprise.
2.2 Technological skills
The technological skills that might be imbibed by the Informer, most specifically the
accountant, is based on improving the information processing, accounting knowledge and
computer technologies. It will be helping me to undertake the smooth functioning of the
processes as per the job role.
Section 3: Industry requirements and trends

4EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Industry dashboard
Accounting industry Graduate criteria
Technical skills
 Information processing
 information gathering
from reliable sources
 Accounting knowledge
 Specific knowledge on
Computer technologies
Soft skills
 Verbal
 Non- verbal
communication
Emerging job/ roles
The involvement of the
Technical accounting through the
utilization of the MS Office has
helped the industry in making a
steady progress in the different
ventures that are planned by the
businesses. The accounting
market is evolving steadily
through a rise of 73.90 %. It has
helped in the steady rise in the
market structures of the
organizations that are prospering
under the acclaimed industry. On
the other hands, the IT
professionals have found a job
role in the banking sector due to
globalization. It has affected the
functioning of the systems of the
business while operating in the
international markets.
Industry growth areas
 Customer centric
operations
 Growth of the
multinational
organizations and their
need of consulting and
financial assistance in
the different stages of
their development
 Evolving technological
aspects
 Mitigation of the cyber
security issues

5EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Traditional job/ roles
Bookkeeping and the other in
house staffs found a place in the
banking sector traditionally.
People were appointed with the
task of looking after the needs of
the customers visiting the bank.
The accounting staff were no less
than those of bookkeepers who
was held responsible for
recording and analyzing the
transactions that the bank
undertook.
Industry challenges
 Change in the
customer dynamics
 Improving the
consumer retention
rates
 Developing artificial
assistance
 Developing proper
planning for the
organizations through
a thorough study of the
situation of the same
while operating in the
different market
structures
 The biggest challenge
that sis faced by the
industry is related to
the evolving
technologies of data
storage and cloud
computing, which has
limited the access over
Employment challenges
 Competition in the
market due to
abundance of skilled
candidates
 The specific technical
skills that are required
to be imbibed in the
candidates might be
challenging to achieve
which creates
competition in the

6EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
the data that is
maintained by the
organizations while
operating in the
respective markets.
specific industry’s
market structure.
My top five organizations
 CPA Australia
 Institute of Chartered
Accountants in
Australia
 Institute of Public
Accountants (IPA)
 Tax Institute
 Association of
Taxation and
Management
Accountants (ATMA)

7EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Section 4
Weaker areas Strength areas
0-5 5-10 11-15 16-20 21-
25
26-
30
31-35 36-40 41-
45
46-50
Non-
consistent
Very
weak
Weak Quite
weak
A
little
weak
Shapes Ok Quite
good
Good Very
good
Exc
ellent
Skills 
Habits 
 Attitudes
preference
s

Experienc
e

 Strategies

8EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Personal qualities Good Wish to improve
Self awareness 3
Problem solving ability 5
Creative approach 2
Positive attitude 1
Team working 3
Leadership 4
Negotiating skills 1
PPF- aspect Score Level and direction of
preference
Structure 3 The preference level is
medium, as the structural skills

9EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
are not so accurate
External direction 5 The skills of external reference
is high, therefore the
preference is also high.
Working with others 1 Teamwork is very poor,
therefore the preference level is
high
Physical stimulus 2 The preference for physical
stimulus is high, as it needs to
be upgraded.
Global/Serialist 4 The score for globalist is high,
which indicates a medium
preference.
Pressure 1 The score for pressure is very
low, which indicates a high
preference for strategic
planning.
VAK 3 The score for this is medium,
which needs planning for
upgradation.
Academic performance review
My score for extrovert side of the mind is 40% and the introvert side is 60%. This means
that I am introvert, lacking the skills of interacting with others. Therefore, I need to upgrade my

10EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
communication skills. I am 52% intuitive. This indicates that my physical stimulus is moderate,
which needs the execution of different and wide ranging activities. On the other hand, my score
for observation is 48%, which is a positive indication towards enhancing my learning skills. My
thinking score is 54%, which results in undertaking logical decisions. My score for emotions and
feelings is 46%, which indicates that I become moderately emotional while taking decisions.
56% is the score for my judgement and 44% is the score for thinking about the prospect before
taking the decisions. In terms of identity, my score is 64% assertive and 36% turbulent. That
indicates, I need to adopt logical assertion.
Experience
After undertaking the test, I felt that I am weak in the areas of undertaking decisions and
exposing structural performance. Therefore, I need to attend personality development courses for
altering my personality. Attending spoken English classes would improve and upgrade my
communication skills. External references is crucial in terms of assessing the prospective areas,
where I can enhance my professional skills. Apart from this, I also felt that physical fitness is
important in terms of undertaking challenging and enduring tasks. I also think that group
discussions are essential in terms of enhancing my preconceived knowledge on various subjects.
Evaluation is also important in terms of discovering the areas, where I need improvement.
Maintaining consistency in the execution of evaluation would help me to upgrade my
performance. Using templates and checklists in the evaluation would assist me to discover the
areas, where I need to enhance my skills.

11EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Section 5
1. Gap Analysis
A. Gaps in the critical skills
The different gaps that are identified through the tests are based on the communication
skills that I lack. The communication skills help in maintaining a proper congruency in the
management of the organization and the employees. On the other hand, the communication skills
would have helped me in interacting with the people of the organization to retrieve data that will
be required for analyzing the strategic and accounting position of the organizations. The
introverted nature has affected the manner in which I approach people. It will be affecting the
different levels of systems while performing my duties as per the objectives of the business. The
organization requires skills of verbal communication, which will be helping to interact with the
people of the management of the organization. On the other hand, the technical skills of
computing that is required by the organization is inherent which will be helping me to prove it as
a strength of the activities that are undertaken by the business.
B. Career readiness
While undertaking the different personality tests I found that I am an extroverted person,
which has affected the manner in which I communicate with the people. The organizations
require accountants who have a good communication skill, which would be helping to integrate
the workforce and thereby discuss the different standpoints. I believe that I would have to build

12EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
on my communication skills which will be helping me to enhance the employability options in a
competitive employment market scenario.
2. SWOT
Strengths
 Strong knowledge of accounting
 Technical computer knowledge
Weaknesses
 Weak communication skills
 Huge competition of skilled workforce
in the market
Opportunities
 Huge market opportunities for
accounting and consultancy
 Growth of Multinational organizations
Threats
 Lack of proper data for evaluation
 Evolving technologies which might be
unfamiliar to me
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above analysis it might be stated that there are certain weaknesses
and strengths that might be considered while considering the different clusters that are available
in the Australian markets. Identification of the needs of the organization is required to be
undertaken for staffing. Understanding of the needs of the industry or specific organization helps
in maintaining a proper analysis of the job roles and the requisites. Understanding the
requirements of the organization helps in maintaining standards with the employment
opportunities. The report enumerates the different personality tests which has helped me in
identifying my strengths and weaknesses correlating to the needs of the accounting industry. It
will be helping me to find a better prospect in the industry.

13EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS

14EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Appendix