Vocational High School Accounting Students’ Perception of the Accounting Profession

Accounting is of great importance for people, companies, and governments both in developed and developing economies. The systematic tracking of activities that are carried out by the companies, the arrangement of several necessary reports, and the investigation of the differences between the existing and planned situations can only be accomplished through a well-designed accounting system. Moreover, indicating the problematic sides of the company, evaluating the organization, steering the management by revealing the expected results and stating the situations to be avoided are the duties of accounting profession as well. Accounting is also vital for the government in the calculation of tax. How much tax will be paid by the people or the companies are determined through accounting. Even though the implementation of accounting has been regulated by law in a country, members of accounting profession who implement the system should be well-trained in their professions. Furthermore, if people feel a sense of belonging to their professions, this leads to more satisfaction on their professions. The current study aimed to investigate the students’ perceptions on the accounting profession in accounting programs at vocational high schools that are the keystone institutions in training members of the accounting profession, whether the students will prefer the department of accounting and taxation in higher education and the factors which influence students’ preferences. For the method, a questionnaire was administered to the accounting department students at Vocational High Schools in Bal？kesir. A questionnaire was applied as data collection tool and 908 questionnaires were answered. As a result of the analysis made, the students' perception of accounting profession was high in general, but towards the graduation stage, that is, as the class jump progressed, the perception of profession and professional attitude decreased.Key words: Perception of profession, Professional training, Member of profession, Accounting Department