The Influence of Firm Characteristics on Soft Skills Among Accounting Interns

Abstract

Mastering soft skills is vital for graduates to impress future employer and to perform in their job. This study aims to identify the soft skills acquired among accounting students during internship. It also examines the influence of firm characteristics (type of company, location of company, and type of partners) on the four main soft skills (personal attributes, job skills, communication, and professionalism) developed. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 199 employers that enrolled final-year accounting students as interns in their organisations in 2021. This study used Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to generate descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results revealed that accounting students possess a higher level of professionalism compared to personal attributes, job skills, and communication. Furthermore, the results evidenced that types of companies (big four accounting firm, non-big four accounting firm, and commercial companies) influence their job skills and professionalism. Besides, types of partners (Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera) affect personal attributes. The findings suggest that the company, university and policymakers need to provide proper guidelines in ensuring that the graduates are equipped with necessary soft skills even when the company practises a work-from-home (WFH) approach.