Abstract
The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has changed the way in which people live and work. A skilled workforce that can meet the demands of the information age due to the rapid change of working requirements, is necessary. The increase in demand for internal auditors to use technology and adapt to handling massive amounts of data has evolved over time. The auditing profession has moved from a document-centric to a data-centric approach, enabling professionals to use different technologies to streamline their processes.
This study investigates the big data fluency skills that internal auditors need to harness to remain relevant in the advent of the 4IR. The main objectives were to (i) examine the popular data processing tools that are prominent in modern day businesses in the public sector; (ii) examine the skills and tools internal auditors need to acquire fluency in, to keep abreast of the challenges and opportunities that were brought by the 4IR; and lastly, to (iii) identify the most common big data storage applications used in the public sector. A qualitative research methodology was adopted which followed a two-step approach of identifying the big data skills and tools through the literature review and conducting Semi- structured interviews with a sample of internal audit practitioners.
The results of the study found that a total of eight out of 10 (80%) internal audit participants agree that big data analytics is taking over auditing practices. In addition to the analytics, 10 out of 10 (100%) participants consider Excel as one of the top skills that will set the tone to understanding any data related matters. Lastly, internal auditors believe that courses related to big data should be included in their continuous professional educational programs, since they use data analytics skills at an intermediate, but not yet advanced level. For the data processing tools and applications involved, about eight out of 10 (80%) agreed to testing their abilities to research and gather useful data using relevant IT tools, indicating their capabilities to perform such tasks.
Key words: fourth industrial revolution, big data, internal audit.