Introduction:
Commerce education is a business education. Commerce education in
the area of education that develops the required knowledge, skills, and
attitudes for the handling of Trade, Commerce, and Industry. The recent
commerce education has emerged in the form of Chartered Accountant, Cost and
works accountant, Company secretary, and Business administrator. Commerce
education is totally different from other disciplines. Hence, it must charter
new routes to service the aspirations of the nation. To meet the growing needs
of the business society, there is greater demand for the sound development of
commerce education. The
relevance of commerce education has become more imperative, this means a marked
change in the way commerce and management education is perceived in India. Through
teaching, research, and service, the College of Commerce is dedicated to
developing tomorrow's leaders, managers, and professionals.
"Commerce education is that form of instruction which
both, directly and indirectly, prepare the businessman for his calling."
Fredrik G. Nichols defined as -
"Commerce education is a type of training which, while playing its part in the achievement of the general aims
of education of any given level, has for its primary objective the preparation
of people to enter upon a business career, or having entered upon such a
career, to render more efficient service therein and to advance from their
present levels of employment to higher levels.” During the post
independence era, commerce education has emerged as one of the most potential
pursuits in the wake of industrialization. Most of the Education Commissions
constituted in post-independence India to explore higher education have
undoubtedly held that commerce education is primarily meant for providing
the student's in-depth knowledge of different functional areas of business so as
to prepare people required by the community for the purposes of trade, commerce
and industry
Importance of Commerce Education:
Commerce education in our country has been developed to support
the growing manpower needs of business enterprises. The education imparted to
the students of commerce intended to equip them with the specialized skills
useful in different functional areas of trade, commerce, and industry. A continuous supply of quality manpower is essential for the growth of the
industry sector. This necessitated the skilled manpower to manage the
process of industrial reconstruction and the rapidly growing trade and
commerce. However, over the years, there has been a fundamental shift in
the very approach of commerce education; from a professional to a theoretical
education. With a quantum jump in the business scenario, there is a need to
redefine the commerce education in the changing scenario and strengthen it
further.
Commerce education plays an essential role in today’s dynamic
business environment. The rapid trend of globalization and technological
changes have made it difficult for organizations to survive in the competitive
world. As a result, the importance of Commerce education has been increased many
folds. Business executives need to update their skills due to sudden changes in
the external environment. Due to the increasingly complex nature of
organizations and businesses, there is a need that the business schools impart
relevant, current, and cutting edge knowledge to the students. The School of
commerce should play a pivotal role in equipping our future dynamic managers with
the emerging trends of Commerce skills to face the challenges of the dynamic
business world.
Subjects of Commerce Education:
Commerce offers a foundation for
many professional careers like Finance, Planning, Accountancy, Tax
Practitioners, Banking and Broking, etc, besides academics, research, and many
more. Persons having flair for accounting, finance, commodities, marketing, and
trading, etc. generally choose Commerce. As a stream of study, Commerce can be
studied at the Higher Secondary level. This paves the way for higher studies in
commerce related subjects. The undergraduate and postgraduate Education in
Commerce is offered at University departments and colleges spread all across
the country. Specializations are offered at postgraduate and at research levels.
A number of subjects can be studied under disciplines of Commerce in
conjugation like; Accountancy, Economics, Mathematics, Business, Finance,
Marketing, etc.
Most
Commerce colleges in India offer the following subjects in their curriculum:
Business Economics: This
would cover concepts like the laws of demand and supply, the law of returns,
elasticity theory of pricing under different market forms etc.
Financial Accounting: This the subject would deal with the preparation of financial statements like - Profit
and Loss statements, Balance Sheets and Final accounts of a company, knowledge
of Indian and international accounting standards, calculation of depreciation
and valuation of shares and goodwill of a company.
Cost Accounting: This
would include process, job and contract costing, costing of overheads, standard
and variance costing and budgetary control.
Income Tax: This
would encompass the nature and basis of the charge of income tax, tax planning, tax the deduction, incomes not taxable, etc.
Auditing: This
would deal with vouching, valuation, and verification of transactions, assets, and liabilities. It will also include studying the auditing of different
organizations like clubs, hospitals, and charitable concerns.
Business Finance: This
would include in its scope of financial analysis as a diagnostic tool, the
management of working capital and its components as well as capital structure
leverages.
Business
Law: This subject would discuss the different laws in
India
relating to, among others, the Companies Act and the Consumer Protection Act.
Challenges
in Commerce Education:
Today, the business world feels that the Commerce graduates and
post-graduates lack in right kind of skills which are needed. Now the time has
come to realize the mismatch between the product and the demand. We have to
adopt market orientation to our products to make them saleable. There is an
urgent need to overhaul the existing business education system to cope up with
the dynamic world. The problems faced by the business graduates and
post-graduates are of great concern for the students, academicians, business
world, and even for parents. The reasons are many and they have oriented towards
classroom theoretical teaching, lack of practical and work-related skills, lack
of communication skills, parochial and not global in values and thinking, lack
of the base of information technology, etc.
The traditional Commerce education has become irrelevant in
the new era of globalization. The impact of globalization on the corporate sector has suddenly created a demand for trained human resource of business
education with innovative ideas, new approaches in business as well as
professional skills. In order to fill the gap in this regard, a new orientation
requires to be given to the discipline of commerce education. Keeping in mind
the significance of modern commerce education, the Indian government has
liberalized the commerce and business education market since the 1990s, resulting
in an unprecedented growth in the number of commerce and management
institutions mostly through private participants. The students now have a vast
choice regarding the institutions in which they want to study. Since the
commerce graduates and post-graduates produced by these institutions are
primarily absorbed by industry, there is a growing need to match the curriculum
and structure of business education to better fit the needs of changes in both the industrial and services sectors within the country. Moreover, it is
important to properly assess the quality of commerce education imparted to the
students in various institutions for proper decision-making regarding selection
and recruitment by potential employers.
Conclusions:
Commerce should play a pivotal role in equipping our future dynamic
managers with the emerging trends of Commerce skills to face the challenges of the dynamic business world. Globalization and liberalization of our economy with
privatization and technological revolution have posed the most unprecedented
challenges before the commerce education. With trade and commerce assuming
innovative dimensions in the context of growing international business, the
curricula for Commerce faculty should be adapted and restructured to meet the
future challenges of the economic, manufacturing, and service sectors. The
syllabus of commerce education must contain the knowledge component skill component
of the practice component. Placement is the ultimate goal of any business
education. To place the students in industries, colleges can arrange campus
recruitment & placement. The educational policymakers need to think about
this matter seriously.