Fact – Excel Skills are good for your career and there is an Excel Skills Gap.
You are probably thinking right now ‘ah yea, sure you love Excel, you make your living from Excel, of course you are going to say that…..’
But wait, here me out, it’s not just me saying so
Burning-Glass.com carried out an analysis on job postings during 2013 and 2014 and found that it doesn’t really matter if you are an Accountant or not, Excel skills are required:
‘Nearly eight in 10 middle-skill jobs require digital skills. Spreadsheet and word processing proficiencies have become a baseline requirement for the majority of middle skill opportunities (78%).
Digitally intensive middle-skill occupations are growing faster than other middle-skill jobs. Digitally intensive jobs have grown 2.5 times more rapidly than middle-skill jobs that do not require spreadsheets, word processing, or other digital skills (between 2003 and 2013, 4.7% growth for digitally intensive jobs compared to 1.9% growth for other positions).
Digitally intensive middle-skill jobs pay more than middle-skill jobs that do not require a digital component. Digitally intensive middle-skill occupations offer 18% higher wages on average: $23.76 per hour compared to $20.14 per hour for all other middle-skill jobs.’
Read the full report at Burning-Glass.com
In a post on Recruitment International written by Rebecca Jeffrey ‘Finance recruitment trends in 2016’ it was stated that
‘Hiring managers across the finance jobs sector are looking for tech-savvy candidates, such as those individuals with outstanding Excel skills’
ACCA have identified Excel as being in the top ten Global in demand skills . You can check out their report here
Payscale.com have analysed their data in 2016 and found that 36 % of Managers feel new grads lack Excel and data skill. You can read their report here.
So you see it’s not just me…………There is an Excel Skills Gap