Excel Certification at Seattle University

1. Excel Certification at Seattle University Senior Lecturer Seattle University Maure Baker Territory Manager Certiport

2. Needs of the Global Marketplace “ American employers need a workforce that is skilled, adaptable, creative, and equipped for success in the global marketplace. ” Investing in America’s Future: A Blueprint for Transforming Career and Technical Education US Department of Education, April 2012

3. A National Goal for America’s Future “ To win the future we must out-educate our global competitors by giving every student a world-class education and opening the doors of college and opportunity to all students. ” President Barack Obama President, United States of America Winning the Future: President Obama’s Budget www.whitehouse.gov

4. Who benefits from certification? Academic Business Individuals Government Increases the likelihood of graduation and prepares students to enter the workforce. Grow enrollment by attracting students with learning outcomes for tomorrow’s jobs. Certified employees are more competent, more productive, and more independent. Enhances national economic competition, providing social support to up-skill the unemployed

5. Value Proposition / Benefits Academic Institutions • Institutions • Faculty • Students

6. Student Employability Top-tier staffing agency reports: • Twice as likely to be placed • 50% more likely to be hired FT • Average 10-15% higher pay Time Magazine Report http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952331,00.html

7. Career Readiness & Satisfaction • 80% of entry-level information worker tasks • 85% of supervisors report • More productive • Require less supervision • 93% Become team resources • 89% Are more satisfied at work • Keeping/staying with their job "Proportionally, more kids have lost jobs in the past few years than the entire country lost in the Great Depression." - Andrew Sum in Time Magazine Jan 18, 2010

8. Business Professionals Recruit MOS Certified Candidates Jenni Gillis, CPA – Campus Recruiter Getting experience with Excel so that you have a solid understanding of the tool is a great way for an intern or new hire to set him/herself up for success.  Knowing Excel is the table stakes that you need to have in place before you can shine in other ways.  If you have a good understanding of Excel you will more likely be able to complete a great work product or differentiate yourself as   efficient and effective. Cecilia Cayetano, CPA – Senior Manager If a team member can’t demonstrate Excel proficiency and produce reports in a timely manner – they won’t be on my team a second time. Our billable hours are tied to a budget – and we can’t bill a client for work that takes longer than the standard time allocated.

9. Seattle University Certiport Certification • Problem Employers report that Excel skills of accounting students entering the workforce are inadequate • Solution • Assess current level of accounting student Excel skills • Identify weaknesses • Create Excel instruction to improve skill set • Integrate Excel projects throughout the accounting curriculum • Assess Excel skills in last accounting class

10. Excel Assessment Required: In an Excel spreadsheet create a table that shows Col. Drake's weekly revenues, total costs, and profit before taxes for car volumes from 0 to 375 in steps of 5 (that is: 0, 5, 10, ..., 370, 375). Design the worksheet so that if Ms. Drake asks about the effect of changing any of the given parameters, you can respond simply by changing the value of the parameter itself, not the logic of your worksheet. Losses should be shown either in red font on white background or in white font on a red background, but this should be done automatically, not manually for each cell. Create a chart which shows revenue, expenses , and profit for Col. Drake's Oil Change, Inc.

11. Excel Assessment • Criteria for scoring Excel Spreadsheets An effective spreadsheet is one that meets the following criteria: • Correctness   • What-if Capability   • Flexible   • Easy to maintain • Well-designed • Instructor comments • Accounting students’ Excel skills improved only slightly between beginning accounting class and last accounting class. Average score in beginning class was 6.3 and in last class was 7.3, and increase of 16%.

12. Excel Certification • Results of Excel remediation Improvement in Excel skills – Yes Adequate for accounting profession – No • Next steps Require Excel certification for all accounting students Study method: Excel text – exam preparation Gmetrix practice tests Performance on Certification exam – 95% pass by second attempt • Watch out for----

13. Business Professionals Comments • Business School Placement Center reports that potential employers now distinctly look for Excel certification on Applicants’ resumes • Accounting firm recruiters report higher initial spreadsheet performance from Seattle University graduates

14. The Next Steps • Excel certification requirement expanded from accounting major to all business students. • Freshmen - pass exam by end of freshman year. • Transfer students - pass exam by end of fall quarter. • Failure to pass = inability to register for next quarter

15. Integration of Excel throughout Business Core Classes • Economics – Quantitative Methods and Applications • Every homework assignment in Econ 310 uses Excel. Students do loading data, finding descriptive statistics, ANOVA, regression analysis, graphing. • Economics - Intermediate Microeconomics • Constrained optimization problem, requiring partial differentiation and the use of Lagrange multipliers • Use the results above to investigate another optimization approach.  However, for one of the cases the optimization technique does not work, a fact obscured in our text, and this is important in later work in the class. 

16. Integration of Excel throughout Business Core Classes • Managerial Accounting • Homework sets – 20% of grade is based on correct use of Excel formulas and formatting • Team cases – Budgeting and Relevant Costing • Financial Accounting • Ratio analysis case in Excel • Corporate Finance • Cash budget with Loan financing • Marketing • Breakeven Analysis

17. Certiport Testing Centers Over 12000 World-Wide – coming soon to a neighborhood near you!!! On campus Technical requirements

18. Conclusion bees@seattleu.edu • Questions ?????????

19. Conclusion • Thank you for your time!!!