Strengthening accounting practice through school-community partnerships: Bridging theory and practice in accounting education

The persistent theory-practice gap in accounting education raises concerns about graduates’ preparedness for professional practice. This study proposes and examines a model explaining how school-community partnerships can bridge this gap and improve accounting graduate outcomes. Drawing on experiential learning, situated learning, stakeholder, and communities of practice theories, the model illustrates how institutional support and community engagement shape partnership activities between educational institutions and external stakeholders. These partnerships are expected to connect classroom learning with professional practice by facilitating knowledge transfer, experiential learning, professional socialization, digital competence, and workplace readiness. The model further explains how these learning mechanisms contribute to graduate outcomes, highlighting the pathways through which collaboration can translate into improved professional preparedness. Using survey data from 302 stakeholders across Ghanaian institutions, the study examines the relationships represented in the model. The findings provide support for several proposed relationships, particularly the roles of institutional support and community engagement in fostering partnerships, and the contributions of knowledge transfer, professional socialization, digital competence, and workplace readiness to graduate outcomes. The study offers an educational framework for designing accounting curricula that integrate academic instruction with authentic professional experiences. It also highlights the importance of coordinated engagement among universities, employers, accounting firms, and professional bodies in developing graduates equipped with the practical, technological, and professional competencies required by the evolving accounting profession.