The study examined the foundational competency improvement needs for employment of undergraduate accounting education students in North-east, Nigeria, using descriptive survey research design involving a structured questionnaire. The sample of the study comprised 52 Accounting educators, 156 accountants in industries, and 281 final year undergraduate accounting education students. The questionnaire had two different rating scales. The first rating scale was used to collect data relating to the level of importance of the skills and the second rating scale was used to collect data on the extent to which the skills were consciously developed during their studies. This questionnaire was validated and pilot tested, and a reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained. The data were collected by the researcher assisted by ten trained research assistants. The data were analyzed using Table of frequencies, mean scores, standard deviation, and Improvement Needs Index to answer the two research questions, while the two hypotheses were tested using independent sample t. test. The study disclosed that all the 52 foundational skills were adjudged by accounting educators and accountants in industries as very important for inclusion in the curriculum of undergraduate accounting education students in North- east, Nigeria. Undergraduate accounting education students were deficient in four of the six subscales of foundational skills. Based on the findings, it was recommended that accounting educators should include the areas of deficiencies identified in this study in undergraduate curriculum of accounting education and focus attention on developing those skills.
Keywords: Accounting Education, Accounting Skills, Employability Skills, foundational skills, skill improvement needs
