Daily stuff would be bookkeeping and monthly/quality/yearly stuff is taxes, planning, and government compliance. Smaller companies could have 1 part time/full time accountant/bookkeeper be reasonable for everything you described along with the CEO.
With very large company’s having entire division of with things broken down more. They could have teams of people working with lawyers on tax compliance and regulations while others in the division only did data entry for accounts receivable, and so on.
Internships sound like a grand idea but in reality there are really enough to go around. The community college I went to had only 1 available for a couple hundred students. The funny thing was no one qualified for it. You also have company's with mind set that if you could not be paid in the first place a proper wage for being an "intern" why should they pay full price.
My original goal was to get a 2 year degree and then get some entry level work and start saving up/taking advantage of employer funding to get a Bachelor’s degree. From there I want to focus on getting a CPA (certified public accountant) by finishing off other requirements and taking required exams. In the end I wanted to switch over after getting about 15 years of expernice in general accounting into something more specifically like internal controls or forensic accounting (very expensive to get education in those type of things).
I’ve forgotten most of it but a couple of things I use it for now again. Sadly I don’t have best memory and it’s been 4 years or so now. If it was not for things like GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) being drilled into my brain I’d have forgotten about that as well by now.
I use to be able to set up in excel or QuickBooks the entire accounting system from chart of accounts to inventorying, to end of year closing. Data entry for all accounts such as accounts payable, accounts recoverable for a large array of business types like manufacturing or services. Analyze cash flow and determine best case usage for any surplus. Find and correct data entry issues, end of year closing of accounts. Understanding, researching, and staying compliant with government regulations. Employer and employee taxes from the point of view of the business. Basic auditing and internal controls and setting up internal control systems. Contract law and other business related things. Just to name a few things.
I took a lot of fun and interesting classes at the time relating to it. These where most related to dealing with a company: Computerized bookkeeping, intro to business, financial accounting, managerial accounting, business math, financial planning, business ethics, income tax, business law (contracts), principles of finance, excel, micro economics, Marco economics, international relations.
Oddly enough according to O-net Bookkeeping is still 41% high school diploma with 1.7million workers. With automation it’s an ever shrinking employment opportunity with just a CPA/Accountant doing everything at a much higher level of understanding these days than having an Accountant and a bookkeeper.
https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/43-3031.00
Another big issue with degrees is around 6 months you are considered outdated and it no longer being valid unless you have work experience to back it up.
Degree obsolescence is a major problem schools don't mention.
I wouldn't think that degrees should generally be obsolete in the time it takes to get the degree. My computer science degree from twenty years ago is mostly obsolete but now I have the experience. From a financial perspective, college degrees are most helpful when initially getting a job in that particular field. The more years experience you have, the less important the degree is for that purpose.
Not all degrees suffer from obsolescence, but many have a short shelf-life if you don't keep up with changes in the industry.