Core competencies: Mapping the Vision-Aligned Academic Framework into the Vision Project

The AICPA issued its Vision-Aligned Academic Framework (2000) to assist faculty in modifying curricula to support students’ development of the Core Competencies that the AICPA previously articulated in its Vision Project (1999). The Framework provides extensive detail about twenty different Competency Dimensions in an effort to aid educators in defining learning objectives that better incorporate the Vision Project’s five Core Competencies. However, at present, there is a gap between the Framework and the Vision Project in that there is no explicit mapping of the Framework’s Competency Dimensions to each of the Vision Project’s Core Competencies. Given the importance of the Framework in developing learning objectives that reflect the Vision Project’s Core Competencies, this paper extends the academic literature by mapping each Competency Dimension in the Framework to a specific Core Competency in the Vision Project. In so doing, this manuscript supports the AICPA’s conceptual modeling process by providing an explicit mapping that will help accounting educators in their efforts to expeditiously integrate into their curriculum the Vision Project’s Core Competencies.