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still have concerns about this
But if the.challenge is education then surely the best place is in schools.perhaps as part of ks3 maths. Sounds like ICAEW is banging wrong drum here.
Right drum, could be louder
Unsurprisingly, I think the ICAEW is banging exactly the right drum, albeit not loudly enough and perhaps 15 years too late. I have been working with accountants and Excel for about 25 years. I remain convinced of three things: the use of spreadsheets in business is close to ubiquitous; appropriate use of spreadsheets in a business environment is not adequately taught at any stage in the current education process - from school to professional qualification, and that businesses of all sizes waste vast amounts of time and effort through poor application of spreadsheet technology. Admittedly, I have little research evidence for the latter assumption and would dearly love such research to be conducted or for someone to point me towards any that does exist.
The 20 Principles were designed to provide practical and straightforward guidance on how to make better use of spreadsheets. For me, it is absolutely the role of a professional organisation to help its members work more proficiently and efficiently. In addition, there is a definite public interest aspect to such a project. From the smallest business to the largest government department I am convinced that better spreadsheet knowledge would make a positive contribution to efficiency and a reduction in errors and time wasted on troubleshooting and remedial work.
yes but
Thought the comment on how excel is changing and impact on these principles was most interesting. Which makes part of my point. The world moves on and you can't change old habits. Get them young is surely the answer.
I agree entirely
I would agree entirely with the 'get them young' suggestion but this is something that is probably not in the immediate capability of ICAEW or any of the professional organisations, and would take some time to filter through to making a real difference in business. In the meantime, it's better to do what can be done and hopefully, in so doing, create a level of awareness that might in the future lead to the realisation of the need to consider the issue at a much earlier stage of the education process.
The principles were deliberately made fairly general to allow them to be applied to a rapidly changing Excel and business environment but were also designed to be the beginning of an evolutionary process rather than a one time pronouncement.
Basic use vs. Expertise
What you can teach in schools is basic use of a tool, to reach to an expert level one has to use the tool in real world. I have seen countless messy worksheets, many people simply do not have awareness or appreciation of Excel's potential.
We have to keep in mind that Excel is also used by people other than Accountants, ICAEW and other professional bodies should strive to increase accountants' Excel expertise.
One important point to note is that expertise in use of tools is one thing, getting the design right is another thing.There is difference between a painted shop board and a Dali or Picasso. The guide is good step in correct direction.
Wasting vast amounts of time
Simon says "businesses of all sizes waste vast amounts of time and effort through poor application of spreadsheet technology. Admittedly, I have little research evidence for the latter assumption..." .
He is nonetheless absolutely right. Excel is regularly blamed for material errors, be it a school's budget (as reported in another AWeb articles) or errors in MNCs.that hit the headlines. Of course, most problems never get publicised.
Significant time is wasted trying to minimise and eliminate errors. A big issue is the difficulty of checking one's own work.
Excel is great for ad hoc analysis. For other purposes the question has to be whether another type of software tool would be more appropriate.