Questioning the value of training – part 1

Introduction

First of all, the Mandy Rice-Davies disclaimer, as someone who has been involved in training accountants to use spreadsheets and other office software since the previous millennium, I would write what I’m about to write wouldn’t I?

Over the years, the help resources available to those using office software have increased substantially. As well as the help built into the applications directly, there are detailed articles and videos available to solve almost any spreadsheet problem. Now, we also have Artificial Intelligence available to provide even more targeted guidance. Given the availability of these resources, is there still any point in more formal training?

Are you solving the right problem?

It’s quite easy to find a solution to an Excel problem using a search engine or one of the many available AI resources. However, most Excel problems have many possible solutions. It’s quite possible that several of those solutions won’t work in your particular circumstances. Even worse, a solution might solve the immediate problem but then produce an incorrect result as soon as you add more data or something else changes. Even for those solutions that do work, and are robust enough to cope with obvious changes, some will make coping with more significant future changes a lot easier than others.

In fact, the issue goes even deeper than that. The problem that you think you have might not be the right problem. The ideal solution might involve avoiding the apparent problem in the first place. For example, you might be struggling to summarise some invoice data in a particular way. Searching for a solution to accomplish the required summary might show you a way to create a complex formula that appears to do what you want. However, the real problem might be to do with the way in which the data is structured in the first place, and correcting the issues with that structure could make creating the summaries you need far easier and simpler, as well as making it much easier to deal with additional requirements in the future.

The importance of context

One of the advantages of the right sort of structured training is that it can provide a context within which to evaluate potential solutions. The key consideration is the type of training. Just being taught about half a dozen clever functions can be a lot less useful than being shown how to find the right function for a particular task, and then learning how to learn how to use that function efficiently and safely. In addition, it might be important that the training covers whether you need to use an Excel formula or function in the first place or whether another Excel feature such as Power Query or a PivotTable might be a better solution. It can also be very useful for training to cover important design concepts such as those embodied in the ICAEW 20 Principles for Good Spreadsheet Practice. Getting the structure right in the first place can dramatically reduce the problems and issues that you need to deal with during the creation and use of your spreadsheet.

Conclusion

Specific spreadsheet articles and videos are undoubtedly a valuable resource for Excel users. However, combining these resources with some initial training can help ensure that you have the knowledge not only to ask the right questions but also to choose the best solution, and even to avoid many problems altogether.
We will continue to make a case for ‘traditional’ training in the next part of this short series.

Additional resources

The Excel Community provides access to a range of training resources and events (disclaimer 2: I have been involved in the creation of some of these resources):

• Events and training

As well as the solution to many specific Excel and office software problems, you can also find information on spreadsheet design, and the practical use of Excel features, in the Power BI based ICAEW Excel archive portal:

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