SAP AG has announced the successful implementation of a new curriculum at the University of Santo Tomas-AMV (UST-AMV) College of Accountancy (UST-AMV) under its University Alliance Program.
In collaboration with Accenture, SAP now equips the University’s Accountancy department with twelve hours of experiential laboratory activities that focus on the latest technologies in Accounting on top of Accenture’s industry-specific lectures under the Computer 4 or Accounting Information System (AIS) curriculum.
Initiated by Accenture—a leading global professional services company that provides solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations—the AIS subject curriculum is composed of two hours lecture and three hours laboratory per week.
The lecture includes the introduction for Accounting Information System, Internal Control, Revenue Cycle Parts 1 and 2, and Production Cycle. On the other hand, the laboratory sessions introduce the SAP technologies used in Order-to-Cash, Customer Relationship Management, Sourcing and Procurement, and Human Capital Management. This is currently being offered to the fourth year BS Accountancy and BS Management Accounting students of UST-AMV.
New ‘industry flavor’
According to Clifford Ramos, a professor from UST-AMV who is part of the AIS implementation in the University, the education provided to the students of the University prior to the teaching of the new curriculum was based on the experience of the faculty as well as the training they get from SAP through its University Alliance Program. But with Accenture and SAP coming in as a team, Ramos emphasized that a new “industry flavor” was added to the mix.
“With the AIS, we are pouring in a different flavor to the whole curriculum. We are preparing students to mature intellectually by giving them an overview of what to expect in the business realm of the real world, particularly now that we are moving towards a tech-filled future,” Ramos said.
He added, “The first batch of students who were introduced to the AIS will be graduating this year. We noticed that with the new curriculum, we were able to encourage our students to prepare and make certain adjustments to be at par with industry standards. This is entirely more on the preparation side of the students. We hope that when they go out of the University, they will bring with them this edge over other graduates by leveraging what we taught here at UST-AMV.”
According to SAP Philippines Managing Director Ryan Poggi, SAP’s University Alliance Program will help enable universities in the Philippines to expand their opportunities to provide high-quality education to their students, through an industry-standard curriculum.
He said, “UST-AMV is one of the many universities that is able to integrate technology into its syllabus. We are happy to team up with Accenture to work on this strategic initiative and to collaborate to help build future talent and the next generation of leaders for the Philippines.”
Allan Caballero, Managing Director of Accenture in the Philippines and sponsor of the program, believes that the additional curriculum is a key step to enhancing collaboration with SAP Philippines and to help students further appreciate the existing curriculum as the extended curriculum will add to the value the current content delivers to students.
“I’m very proud of this collaboration with SAP Philippines. The program is about helping the next generation of students view technology as a means to help businesses be more efficient in their day-to-day operations,” he said.
Caballero added, “It is very important that the students are able to understand the full end –to- end picture by bringing the curriculum to life through real life examples on how the SAP solutions are used by clients today.”
Last November, Accenture celebrated the success of the program’s two-month pilot run at the Accenture Delivery Center, Robinsons Cybergate Tower 1, Mandaluyong City with selected students and faculty members from UST-AMV.
Feedback from students
Toshitaka Yamashita, a fourth year accountancy student in UST, recounted his experience with the upgraded SAP curriculum. He said, “Lecturers from Accenture made me realize how effective accounting can be when merged with technology.”
Meanwhile, Joshua Sta. Ana, another accountancy student from the same school, added that learning about SAP’s technologies “opened a lot of doors” to the country’s accountancy students and this gave him a glimpse of his own future.
“I used to think that the only path available for accountancy graduates is becoming an auditor or a CPA,” Sta. Ana said. “I realized that we have so many other options after graduation.”
Due to the overwhelming interest and success of the pilot program, UST-AMV College of Accountancy requested for a second round of the SAP Curriculum Extension program with Accenture.
Poggi concluded, “Through this program, we are aiming to develop highly qualified graduates with critical skills that are needed in the 21st century. Working with Accenture, we can contribute towards preparing the next generation for the future of work, in this new digital economy.”
The University Alliances program opens up the world of SAP to almost 3,000 universities worldwide, and aims to develop highly qualified graduates with critical skills for the new Interconnected Digital Economy. Through the program, SAP promotes practical and future-oriented training at academic institutions by providing teaching staff and students all over the world with access to new SAP technologies. The program is designed for universities and vocational colleges that want to actively integrate SAP software into their curriculum.
