UGBS introduces accounting software training into curricula

The University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) has added accounting software training to its curriculum in an effort to ensure better integration of its students into the job market.

At a brief event on Tuesday to launch the new programme, the Dean of the University of Ghana Business School, Prof. Justice N. Bawole, said that the new module was against several complaints being received from industry players that the graduates the schools send to them are unable to work using the new accounting software, which simplifies their work processes.

According to him, although the school has maintained its traditional approach to delivering accounting courses, there is a need for it to embrace newer trends in technology to make its graduates job-ready.

“Traditional accounting requires that we train our students on how to do bookkeeping and accounting using T accounts and all of those manual systems, so historically we have remained in this. So we end up training students who go to many companies and have moved on and are subscribing to accounting platforms that simplify their work processes, and so from time to time we get feedback from companies that look like you are bringing us students who don’t have what it takes to be plug-and-play, and so you must do better.”

“We have restructured as a school and have decided to equip our students, so today’s launch is to launch the curriculum of a number of accounting softwares, what we call accounting platforms, that we will train our students on how to use,” Prof. Bawole stated.

He explained that per the new module, students offering BSc. Administration (Accounting Option) will be trained on a number of accounting softwares in order to make the students job market-ready and offer value to the organisations that onboard them.

He emphasised that organisations that employ graduates from the school will realise direct cost and time benefits as far as the job onboarding process is concerned.

“It will reduce the time that students use to integrate into companies; it will reduce the amount that companies need to train their staff to be able to become compliant; and it will have many advantages. This is core to our mandate as a training institution.”

Prof. Bawole also announced that laptops will be provided for students without them to participate in the training.

He further clarified that although the school offers practical accounting training to its students, the computerised accounting training will further enhance the competencies of its students in the work world, adding that students undergoing the software training will be guided through a step-by-step approach similar to what actually happens in a contemporary accounting office.