What Are Spreadsheets All About Then?

For over twenty years now I've seen the thrusting of "Excel" and "Word" and essential training.  Reluctant adult learners, often with complex social conditions going on, were guided onto learning about spreadsheets and word processing: via Microsoft promoted products.  Most of that training wasn't put into practical use however, because the "use it or lose it" default behaviour of our brains discards the connections we make in disconnected learning sessions.

We encourage a constructionist approach to learning.  This means that rather that a centralised syllabus being taught in the traditional classroom environment. We encourage using your training to impact on your actual life in the right here right now.

I totally understand the importance of tying my shoelaces, and as a result became so proficient at it, that I can do it without a thought: like the rest of us.  I've also been taught some complex principles and practices in a classroom, to the point where I pass an exam with distinction, yet now, I haven't got a clue about the subject.  If your life isn't connected to it, it swims away. Synapses that fire together wire together!

We're going to use spreadsheets to develop systems that improve and impact on your life right now.  This can be tracking your expenditure, setting budgets for events, monitoring your diet, etc, etc, etc.  This way you own that knowledge, and it will embed just like tying your shoe laces...