Integrated reporting as a challenge for professional accounting education in the 21st century

Abstract

Faced with a complex political, economic, environmental and social context, organizations require new reports that contribute to sustainability, such as the integrated reporting (IR) issued by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC, 2014), a body that established an international framework for presenting financial reports and relevant reports such as: business strategy and the social, environmental and capital aspects that contribute to value creation. Consequently, the accounting professional, as guarantor of public trust, requires comprehensive training and development of skills in the preparation and understanding IR in order to respond to stakeholder needs. Thus, the aim of this paper is to understand the international framework of IR as a challenge for professional accounting education in the 21st century. The methodology applied is qualitative, based on a documentary review. The findings determined the need to understand IR as a management strategy to participate in the competitive business world and the need to include in the curriculum contents and learning on sustainability and the preparation of non-financial reports.