Preparing Accounting Students for Success in the Professional Environment : Enhancing Self-Efficacy Through a Work Integrated Learning Programme

This study provides empirical evidence of the effect of a simulated work integrated learning (WIL) program on students’ self‐efficacy within an accounting context. An Accounting WIL Program was designed as a two‐staged module using information seminars, networking sessions and in‐depth workshops that helped develop final year accounting students’ understanding of the accounting profession as well as some basic skills expected of a new recruit. Data from a questionnaire survey of 35 participant students indicates that the students perceived greater self‐efficacy upon completion of the WIL program, and that male students appeared to show greater self‐efficacy for selected items