INSIDE

By Roger A. Gee

San Diego Mesa College
Email: roger_gee@msn.com

SCANS? It stands for the (U.S. Department of Labor) Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. This group of leading employers and educators established basic skills and competencies that our students need to work successfully in the labor force.

The community colleges in California are under a mandate to include at least some of these competencies in all of their courses. I was asked to come up with a SCANS project for the Financial Accounting classes that I teach.

The project that I developed for the Spring 1998 semester is organized to include the following competencies: Resource, Interpersonal, Information, Systems and Technology.

Resource competencies include managing money and time. At the beginning of the semester the students will assume that they buy stocks using price-earnings ratios as guidelines. They will also construct timelines that include such things as: researching home office addresses in the library, requesting annual reports, monitoring the changes in market price of the stocks, analyzing the annual reports, developing a forecasting model, writing a group paper and giving oral reports.

Interpersonal competencies call for working in groups. My students will be expected to discuss progress and problems with the members of their group. They will also share business news about companies in each portfolio.

At the end of the semester they will prepare a group paper that includes each member’s portfolio.

Information competencies have to do with the acquisition and use of information. My students will write letters requesting annual reports. They will report on relevant articles in the Wall Street Journal. They will monitor and record closing market prices in journals.

Systems competencies include understanding complex relationships. My students will learn to apply annual report analysis measures to investing situations. They will develop a model for monitoring changes in market prices of stocks in their portfolios. They will also develop a simple model that could be used for predicting investment-decision outcomes.

Technology competencies, at least in accounting, have to do with computers. My students will use word processing, spreadsheet and Internet software to carry out the SCANS project. Our campus provides open entry/open exit lab classes for students who don’t know the software.

I expect that the project will be fun for the students. It will certainly link accounting to the real world of current events. If you are interested in how my students do on the SCANS project, please email me at the address above. I’ll be happy to send you a report.