The 7th ASEAN Accounting Education Workgroup (AAEW) conference with Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) Symposium on Application of Technologies in Accounting Education was held in Singapore, 28-29 June 28-29. The AAEW’s objective is to inculcate and empower higher education accounting programs across ASEAN countries with the vision of producing graduates who can compete in the global accounting market. It also aims to further support businesses and the accounting profession development in the ASEAN community through advice on matters of relevance to accounting education.
On the first day of the conference, 28 June, Dr. Arif Perdana, Assistant Professor in SIT, conducted a workshop on Tableau application software, one of the latest data analytic tool, which let the student delegates experience visualization techniques for exploring and analyzing data. CapSim simulations and competition was later then directed by Mr. David Knock, Director of EDCentral & Knock Education Consulting.
The simulations competition was composed of four rounds with three to four members per team. There were eleven teams from seven universities of the three participating countries: Indonesia, Philippines, and Singapore. The simulations were conducted on a high and low-tech market segmentation with each group competing within their industry under competitive market environments. The goal was to top on profitability, customer satisfaction, and capture highest market share. Every completed round was evaluated on the key areas and functions of a company. According to Mr. Knock, the simulations game provided the students with a unique and new learning experience that gave them ideas on how to apply their knowledge in everyday business problems that they will soon encounter in the workforce.
The four (4) students who represented the Ateneo de Naga University in the competition were Angelique Abellada, Charles Arendaing, Camilla Talagtag, and Edward Tejada with Dr. Christopher Abelinde, Dean of College of Business and Accountancy, and Joanna Marie Revilla, accompanying teacher. With vigor in their hearts, the students won and rankend first in the simulations. They were awarded with certificates and were given one-hundred fifty Singaporean dollars’ worth of gift vouchers by CPA Australia.
On the second day, June 29th, students and AAEW members attended the SIT Symposium on Application of Technologies in Accounting Education. In the symposium, the convergence of technology in the accounting profession were discussed by different speakers. They presented issues that the accounting profession might face soon due to technological development like blockchain and artificial intelligence. Blockchain is a global digital ledger of economic transactions that is transparent, continually updated by countless users, and considered by many as almost impossible to corrupt or hack. They also presented what accounting educators must do to counter these deterrents. To highly educate students on their foundation in the fundamentals of accounting, and to promote the students’ critical thinking were one of the solutions presented. Later in the afternoon of that day, the AAEW members had their annual meeting presided by Dr. Nanny Dewi Tanzil, AAEW President. Dr. Christopher Abelinde attended the meeting as representative of ADNU.
