Towards an understanding of excel functional skills needed for a career in public accounting: Perceptions from public accountants and accounting students

Public accounting firms (e.g., Grant Thornton, 2012) are stressing an interest in recruiting accounting students with a proficiency in Excel. The purpose of this study is to investigate which Excel functions are perceived to be important and useful for new hires to understand prior to starting a job in public accounting. We collect survey data from four large public accounting firms as well as undergraduate and graduate accounting students (i.e., potential new hires) to gauge perceptions of Excel importance, knowledge, and usage in public accounting. We find that employees at the firms believe the most important Excel functions are: basic formula, filter and sort data, vertical (horizontal) lookup, formatting of documents, and If/Then statements. In a comparison of new hires at public accounting firms with accounting students, results suggest that accounting students underestimate the importance and usage of some of these Excel functions. In addition, results suggest that new hires’ perceived knowledge on how to use specific Excel functions in their accounting job is statistically different than students’ perceived knowledge on how to use some of the same Excel functions. Our research contributes to educational accounting literature by documenting which Excel functions employers in public accounting want new hires to know prior to starting a job in public accounting. Also, this research informs accounting educators that students’ perceptions are not the same as public accounting employers’ expectations with respect to analytical skills using Excel technology.     

高职院校素质教育存在的问题与对策研究

高职院校作为以培养技能型人才为主的高等院校,在国家人才培养体系中占有重要地位。高职院校在发展中还普遍存在重职业教育而轻素质教育的现象,在对素质教育的重要性认识、素质教育的环境建设、素质教育的方式方法、素质教育的职业性特点等方面还有诸多问题。因此,要从人才培养模式、课程体系设置、考核方法改进、管理队伍建设等多方面入手,将素质教育与职业教育有机融合,培养高素质技能型人才。     

浅谈高校学生干部的综合表达能力

随着教育的发展,学生人数的增多,学生干部队伍的建设成为学校学生工作的重要内容.笔者通过6个月的团校学习,并结合自身学生干部经历,斗胆就如何成为一名优秀的学生干部提出如下建议,以供大家飨用.     

基于专业引导下的大学生自我管理模式研究

随着社会的发展和高等教育观念的变革,高校传统的学生管理模式已经不能够满足社会对人才培养的要求。基于专业引导的大学生自我管理模式通过寻求专业教育、教学管理、学生管理三者的契合点,在自我管理的各个环节上与教学活动相适应,充分激发每个学生的潜质,有助于全方位提升学生的学习能力、自我管理能力和创新能力。     

Strategies for improving cruise product sales using hybrid ‘multiple criteria decision making’ models

As airlines have shifted to decommission policies, selling cruise products has become a growing trend in the travel industry. However, few studies have discussed this issue or proposed strategies to help improve sales for travel agencies. The purpose of this study is to address this problem, using the novel method of hybrid multiple criteria decision making, including decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), the DEMATEL-based analytic network process and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje), to present optimal improvement models, which are superior in identifying both an influential network and a priority sequence of dimensions/criteria related to selling cruises. The findings provide useful schemes for decision makers according to the priorities of influential weightings from high to low or the sequence of gap values to aspired level from low to high.     

Structural Change in Advanced Nations: A New Set of Stylised Facts*

We provide new evidence on patterns of structural change in advanced economies, reconsidering the stylised facts put forward by Kaldor (1963) , Kuznets (1971) , and Maddison (1980) . Since 1980, the services sector has overwhelmingly predominated in the economic activity of the European Union, Japan, and the US, but there is substantial heterogeneity among services. Personal, finance, and business services have low productivity growth and increasing shares in employment and GDP. By contrast, shares of distribution services are constant, and productivity growth is rapid. We find that the labour share in value‐added is declining, while the use of ICT capital and skilled labour is increasing in all sectors and regions.     

浅谈英汉习语的特点及翻译技巧

习语是语言中独特而固定的部分,具有深厚的历史文化渊源,带有浓厚的民族和地方文化色彩。本文从英汉习语的特点着手,围绕四种翻译技巧,进一步探讨了英汉习语的翻译。     

浅析工程投标中策略与技巧的运用

文章根据目前的建筑市场行情,浅析了一些投标策略和技巧,对如何提高中标率和获取更多的利润进行了分析和总结,为企业经营投标提供了一定的借鉴作用。     

A Knowledge-engineering approach to accounting education

In the context of the massive expansion of the knowledge base facing all fields of professional activity, instructional science (which embraces the use of a knowledge-engineering approach to curriculum design) could well help to unvael the complexity of important pedagogical issues confronting accounting educationalists. The delineation and use of an expert knowledge base within the framework of the ‘dimensions of processing model’ of human information processing provides a valuable focus for making decision about the breadth, depth and nature of specific educatinal objectives. Knowledge engineering, which is fundamental to this process, appears to provide an appropriate framework for the systematic planning, development, delivery and evaluation of high-quality education and training programmes. Such an approach base while ensuring practitioners and teachers to keep pace with their rapidly changing knowledge base while ensuring that students acquire and become competent in the use of the cognitive skills they need in order to work effectively in their chosen profession.     

基于供应链融资业务的职业技能体系

致力于构建供应链融资业务相关职业技能和职业素养体系。这个体系包括制定专项人才培养内容、培养方案、培养和评估标准以及如何建立更严谨和科学的人才管理和激励机制,解决物流企业在供应链融资业务中,专项人才难培训、难评估、难管理的重大基础性问题,实现为物流企业、商业企业和银行降低监管风险,拓展监管效益,完善物流服务网络的多赢局面。