ACCT6004 Management Accounting Report Writing

Context: 

The research component requires students to explore the current roles and responsibilities of management accountants in contemporary business organisations. 

Instructions: 

Students are required to search job advertisements for cost accountants and management  accountants from diverse job websites, to identify selection criteria for cost and management  accountant roles, and to reflect on the skill set required to fulfil the responsibilities of management  accounting position in the work place. 

The instructions for data collection, data analysis and final report are below.

1) Data Collection: 10% 

• You are required to collect data from the following five Australian job websites 

1. www.seek.com.au
2. www.mycareer.com.au
3. www.careerone.com.au
4. www.jobsearch.gov.au
5. www.apsjobs.gov.au

• Identify twenty (20) cost accounting or management accounting positions advertised during  a 6-month period from 1 November 2016 to 30 April 2017. These positions must be based in  Australia. 

          Note: Your positions must differ from those of other students in class. 

• Record the details of the above positions in Table 1 below. 

2) Data Analysis: 10% 

• Complete Table 2 below. 

3) Final Report: 20% 

Respond to the following requirements in your report. Note: References to Table 1 and Table 2 are  required, where applicable. 

Part 1: 300 words 

1) Summarise the positions in the following areas: 

• The job websites where majority of your positions are found 
• The common sector (industry or government organisations) of the positions 
• Whether the positions are classified as ‘cost accountants’, ‘management accountants’, or other classifications (if so, what are these classifications?) 
• The common requirements, selection criteria, responsibilities, and others, of the positions 
• The common requirements, selection criteria, responsibilities, and others, which relate to cost and management accounting knowledge and skills

Part 2: 700 words 

2) Describe the most common cost and management accounting skills and knowledge being  sought for the positions. Discuss why these knowledge and skills are being sought. You are  expected to explain and justify your own opinions in your discussion. You may refer to extra  sources to support your arguments. 

3) Identify the less common cost and management accounting skills and knowledge being  sought for the positions. Discuss why these knowledge and skills are not as highly sought as  those in Area 2 above. You are expected to explain and justify your own opinions in your  discussion. You may refer to extra sources to support your arguments. 

4) Draw practical implications from your research findings: Apart from cost and management  accounting knowledge and skills, identify and explain any challenge(s) facing management  accountants, which could be implied in the advertisements of the positions. 

5) Explain and elaborate the alignments you have provided in the last column of Table 2: What  are the specific topics that you have learnt in ACCT 6004, which have helped you align the  cost and management accounting related criteria of the positions with the specific learning  outcomes of ACCT 6004? To what extent do you think the subject learning outcomes are  aligned to job requirements? 

6) Reflect on your research: What cost and management accounting knowledge and skills,  which are being sought for in the positions, are not taught in ACCT 6004? Do you think these  knowledge and skills should, or should not, be covered in ACCT 6004? Why?