Over 300 Accounting and Finance Majors take MS Excel Certification
Accounting
SUMMARY: During the ‘17-’18 school year, 317 accounting and finance majors were certified as Microsoft Excel Specialists through a program at the College of Business.
2018-2019 is the third year that the program has been in place and the number of certifications grew by 10% last year. While it is open to any student, it is a required component of ACCT304 and FIN360 courses, which are required courses for their respective majors. One of the benefits is that the students don’t have to find a testing spot and pay a fee—instead it is all part of the coursework, with no added cost.
According to accounting lecturer Eileen Shifflett, it not only reflects solid job skills and acts as a resume booster, it differentiates the students in the workplace. Shifflett said that one of her students was asked to teach the Excel class at a company he was interning for this summer, because they had seen he already had the all the skills. She notes, “The tests I give them are actually harder than the certifications tests—but the employers don’t know that.”
