Excel Certification at Seattle University
Maure Baker
Territory Manager
Certiport
Senior Lecturer
Seattle University
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
”
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
”
Who benefits from certification?
Individuals
Academic
Increases the
likelihood of
graduation and
prepares students
to enter the
workforce.
Grow enrollment
by attracting
students with
learning outcomes
for tomorrow’s jobs.
Business
Certified employees
are more
competent, more
productive, and
more independent.
Government
Enhances national
economic
competition,
providing social
support to up-skill
the unemployed
Value Proposition / Benefits
ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS
Institutions
MOS 2010 strengthens institution
curriculum, programs, relevance and
stature.
Faculty
MOS 2010 optimizes course
effectiveness and classroom efficiency.
• Provides relevant, state-of-the-art
validation of course offerings
• Accelerates student progress in
courses and programs
• Embeds digital literacy within
programs and curricula
• Strengthens substance and value of
curricula
• Offers comprehensive, costeffective way to give students the
opportunity to develop skills
necessary for academic work and
required by businesses
• Allows instructors to focus on
coursework, not technology
• Enhances instructor development
programs
• Provides reliable and validated tool
to measure digital literacy of
students
• Promotes improved teaching skills
through enhanced digital literacy
Students
MOS 2010 enables academic success
and promotes workforce readiness.
• Enables students to progress
through coursework and curriculum
with greater ease and efficiency
• Empowers students with individual
differentiation, setting them apart
from others pursuing future
academic admissions and
employment
• Delivers real-world, recognized
credentials—MOS is a distinguished
credential for students when
applying for jobs, demonstrating
workplace readiness
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
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
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.
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
Excel Assessment
Col. Drake's Oil Change, Inc.
24 Price of service ($ per car)
9 Costs of oil, oil filter, and disposal ($ per car)
1,150 Rent, utilities, depreciation ($ per week)
250 Volume at which at which labor costs increase (cars/week)
1,200 Labor costs for 0-250 cars/week ($ per week)
2,100 Labor costs for 251-375 cars/week ($ per week)
Required:
1) 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).
2) 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.
3) 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.
4) Create a chart which shows revenue, expenses , and profit for Col. Drake's Oil Change, Inc.
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%.
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----
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
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
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.
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
Certiport Testing Centers
Over 12000 World-Wide – coming soon to
a neighborhood near you!!!
On campus
Technical requirements
Conclusion
bees@seattleu.edu
• Questions ?????????
Conclusion
• Thank you for your time!!!