What’s long and green and only shows up once a year? Why it’s the St. Patrick’s Day parade of course. In Ireland and many places in the world, you may encounter a lot of green, fireworks, folklores and tales, Irish limericks, beer drinking, shamrocks, leprechauns, and a host of other displays to mark the occasion.
What is St Patrick’s Day?
St Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on the 17th of March. This now-global celebration of the Irish patron saint is to honour him for bringing the Christian faith to Ireland. It’s celebrated on March 17th because it marks the day that the patron saint died in 461 A.D.
However, it has become more than a religious celebration of Saint Patrick. Today, it is a green-themed international festival of all things Irish. Besides the sea of green that we see on St. Patrick’s Day, how much do you know about St Patrick’s Day?
Fun facts about Ireland and St Patrick’s Day
St Patrick’s name was Maewyn Succat. It is believed he was born in Britain, not Ireland, at the end of the 4th century.
It is said that St Patrick was kidnapped at age 16 and sold into slavery on Northern Island. He worked for six years before escaping to Britain and eventually returning to Ireland as a Christian missionary.
Ireland is the second-largest island in Europe.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe book series based on mythical Narnia were written by Irish-born author C.S. Lewis.
Although green is popularly the colour of St Paddy’s Day, the patron saint was initially associated with blue. Green is considered an unlucky colour in Ireland, but this changed in the 19th century because of Ireland’s lush green landscape (Emerald Isle) and its link to Irish mythology and flag.
Chicago, in the US, has a large Irish population and in celebrating St Patrick’s Day, uses 40 pounds of eco-friendly food dye to colour their Chicago River green. This unique way of celebrating started in 1962 and stays green for several hours.
The Irish traditionally wear shamrocks (Ireland’s emblem/national flower) on their lapels. The three-leaved plant holds significant meaning to Christians and symbolises St Patrick’s Day and Ireland. The leaves represent faith, hope, love and the Holy Trinity.
If you find a rare four-leaf clover, it is believed it will bring you “luck”.
Ireland’s famous Curracloe Beach was the background for two Academy-award-winning films, Saving Private Ryan, and Brooklyn.
Get in on the festivities
You can join in on the St Paddy’s celebrations even if you’re not in Ireland. Here are some fun ways you can get in on the festivities.
Cook up a traditional Irish meal of ham and cabbage. The famous corned beef and cabbage meal was a cheaper alternative for impoverished immigrants in the USA.
Tell a funny joke (or two).
Question: What do you call an Irish spider? Answer: Paddy long legs.
Question: When does a leprechaun cross the street? Answer: When it turns green.
Question: How can you tell if an Irishman is having a good time? Answer: He’s Dublin over with laughter.
There you have it. Now you are armed and informed, with a few jokes in the bag, to wow your friends and guests wherever you celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Who knows, you may find a pot of gold before the night is over.
Are you sitting down? Standing up? Grabbed your Vendor’s Jersey or garb they give you and are raring to go? Did you eat your Wheaties? Find the lucky charm? Check to see if your pub, has those pickled eggs you craved, after seeing your soccer team win its last match. Well, if you have, then seriously, that might be the worst thing to eat, next to pickled pigs’ feet. Eeww.
It’s that time of the year. That’s right, the annual, Customer Education Learning Systems Bracket. This is its third year, and I know the folks at such and such are excited to be a part of it. Before I go into the particulars of what I looked at, how this works, and other fun stuff. Here are the past brackets
2021 – It came down to the wire, but Thought Industries defeated Intellum 94-93. In 2022, Thought Industries pulled off the unthinkable, with back-to-back titles, with another thriller, this time knocking off the surprise system of the season, Eurekos, 95-94.
Quick Point
The original term was customer training, then around 2015 or thereabouts, the term switched to customer education. Now, vendors are either saying, “Customer training and education,” or “Customer Training,” or “Customer Education,” or, in the case of one vendor, “Customer Learning.” FWIW, customer training is the same thing as customer education. Again, it is semantics. While this bracket, lists it as “customer education,” going forward, I will be using the term “customer training,” in future posts. That said, Customer Education is the name of the bracket/event, so next year, don’t be alarmed when the name changes. Maybe a sponsor will arrive? Fingers crossed. Waiting to hear from you, Coke!
The majority of people who oversee customer training/education are people in training or have a background in training or education who jumped over to the corporate/association side. It is rare for L&D to oversee external training. Vendors still fail to recognize this. As of late, some companies are placing customer education systems under Marketing. Yes, a horrible idea.
The Systems
The Bracket
Quite a few newcomers cracked the bracket this year. Let’s take a look; in no particular order
Lambda Suite
Learning Cart
Brainier
Acorn LMS
Knowledge Anywhere
Northpass
With the exception of KA, who made the debut bracket in 2021, the others are all new.
Criteria
I’m sure plenty of people have different methodologies, and hey, congrats, but this is what I based my analysis on for the bracket.
One key point here – a lot of vendors who are not in the bracket, will tell you, they provide customer education, or have clients using their system for customer education (aka as the legacy term extended enterprise). The fact is that, as a client, you decide how you want to use the learning system you bought. A vendor can’t tell you, “no, no, this system is only for employees, you can’t offer partner training here!” If they did, they would do massive damage to future sales. Thus, expect vendors who read the post, or heard of it, upon LinkedIn, to note they provide customer education (aka extended enterprise, and have clients.
Equally, there are learning systems on this list, that didn’t crack the top 16, and who knows maybe next year they will. As with anything, criteria and weighting which is how the points show up, plays the essential role here. You may disagree with the results. You may disagree with the bracket. Heck, you may disagree and despise me (which begs the question, why are you reading this?). Anyway, let’s bounce on over to the criteria.
UI/UX
Look, this system is for your customers, clients, partners/distributors, external audiences (the majority of the time), association members, B2C for some folks, B2B, the main one. If your system looks like it came from the stone age, regardless of the feature sets, you are going to take a hit. If I am selling content/product items, certification program or something which is fee-based, I want to make sure my system shines. There is nothing worse than having your customers go into a system, that just is dated. You have one chance here to get them in, and then have them come back over and over again. Now, some training folks (usually the people who oversee customer education, or someone might have a title of director of education; but it is rare to have someone who is L&D run customer education) will offer a system that looks like webcrawler from the 90’s and believe this isn’t a factor. The look is always a factor, whether you realize it or not. As I often say, if you go to a car lot, and you see the car you want, and their is the exact same one next to it, but one is dirty and the other is clean, your eyes and thus you, will go to the clean one. That’s because it looks fresh. Same with a customer education learning system.
UX is very important, regardless if fee-based or free; because these are not your employees, and thus, may not receive any training from you ahead of time. They usually do not get “how to guides” or something along those lines. They are left with – here you go, HELP link (which nobody uses), and next up! I’ve seen this approach with associations, trade and professional, the ones who could provide the materials, and instead just wing folks in there to move forward. If I as the client, can’t find the content or can’t figure out how to navigate the system, then this will be a slog. They will complain. They will privately gripe to others, and use once and never again. I love to hear the one click and there you are angle, which in many cases to get back to the home page, you have to use your back button on your browser or click the logo or some other nonsense, that nobody does. Anyway, I look at the whole thing.
White-Labeling
It has to exist. And it has to be free. There are vendors who pitch it as free, then stick it in to their package to provide – using the legacy term here – extended enterprise. Which BTW, I find more times than not, the term extended enterprise package – when they sell it. Nothing like living in the past. I mean, I am doing customer education, and you have to tell me, oh, that’s the extended enterprise package. Well, if that is the case, why don’t you just call it the customer education/training package? Ok, off the soapbox.
White label by the way, means it is my logo, and my colors – ideally. I see systems that say white-label and then their name is somewhere at the bottom of the page. Sorry, that isn’t white label. If you go to Costco and purchase Kirkland vitamins, you will not see Naturemade at the bottom of the bottle, even though they are the company that made the vitamins.
If WL, is not listed in a package, and thus a separate line item; extra points. If in the package and “free”, but you charge for a package, then subtraction of a point – for the WL angle of free but in a package of items for customer education (aka as old school, icebox level extended enterprise term)
Custom Domain
This is tricky, because a custom domain, really means my name, and nowhere your name. However, vendors across the industry, including ones’ for employees, consider custom domain as yourname.myname.com as the home domain. Anyway, if a vendor did a real custom domain OR offered URL masking and helped set that up for their client, they scored a few extra points. Most end-users never pay attention to this, but if I am paying 250K or more, why do I have to see your name too? For that amount, figure it out.
Functionality – Some weighted heavier than others, but all were relevant:
E-Commerce – including invoicing, promos/discount codes, chargebacks, VAT, and so on – the entire list, you can find in my template. A vendor offering e-commerce, should be able to do this for each sub-tenant (aka child in the system, with the parent being you, and the child being a partner, or a client, who wants their own look, instead of yours).
System accepts Visa, MasterCard and AMEX. PayPal appears with many systems, but that shouldn’t be the route to go. I would recommend Stripe – there are vendors who do this because it accepts all types of credit cards, including ones that are specific to Europe, plus it handles Point of Sales fees, – thus automated processing, and it is easy to use.) AMEX is very popular in the corporate world, and yet, there are a lot of systems who do not accept it. Anyway, more points for all three OR acceptance of Stripe or similar. PayPal only – great, but no points. If the vendor accepted Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay – I gave them an extra point. Honestly, not sure why the vendor would do this, unless I can buy thru my smartphone or tablet, but creativity deserves something, besides an “interesting”.
If your system offers a virtual wallet, an extra few points. It’s quite rare, so mot everyone has it because – did I mention it is rare?
SSL or similar – Crucial for paying – The majority of people go in the first time, buy and then register for their account, which honestly, you want to reverse. I go in, select what I want to buy or get access to for free, create an account, then purchase.
Subscription Bundle option – Huge fan of this!! Every customer-ed focused system (regardless of a combo or customer-ed 90% or more focused) should offer it.
API integrations. If I am a one person or a small entity, that has clients/customers buying my content, I might be using Quickbooks or something similar as my bookkeeping solution. Thus having an API from your system to QB is important. If the vendor has a “marketplace/exchange” where the APIs can be seen, and thus selected – bonus points – this means that the connection is there – add a few things if the vendor uses an offering like Zapier or Workato, bonus points. If they went deep integration, then more points.
Multi-Tenant – Pretty obvious here. If you include only one sub or child, and then I have to pay extra for more, you lost points. The minimum should be five subs, some vendors offer unlimited – if you do, an extra 10 points. That is honestly, the ideal here.
Skills – I know you are thinking skills? How is that important for customer education, when I am offering my content – product training, sales training around my services/product, content topic – say how to be a clown (and you were a former clown, so your content, is all about that – uh, the clown stuff, not you)? Well, more and more folks who are purchasing a learning system for customer education want to offer their customers/clients access to acquiring new skills or building upon ones. They are becoming more interested in tying skills to their content, as a way to either entice folks to buy (free or fee) or even though it is customer education – the client (you) are assigning learning (worst idea for customer education), and want skills tied to it. I am a huge proponent of value-add for customers of a product for example, whereas 3rd party content is offered (for free), as a plus for the customer who purchased your product. Especially if that product is more than 10,000 bucks. I mean, nice competitive advantage. Ditto for associations, BTW to go with that angle too.
Mobile app – You must have one. Some vendors do not, even in the customer-ed space, which I respectfully oppose. This is the vendor created the app, and your customers can access it via the app store. Honestly, there isn’t an excuse to decline to do this when you are using apps all the time. Some vendors will white-label that mobile app for you (it is fee-based) so that your customer can find your name WidgetU instead of SystemU. White-labeling within the app is becoming common but always ask. As a vendor who does the white label route, you should handle getting said app into the Apple and Google Play store. Handing this off to the customer, who has no idea how to do this, isn’t great.
Learning Environment, Catalog with filters including by price range, are relevant.
Event management and vILT management – essential especially with calendar capabilities, notifications, rules around notifications, etc. If you can do SMS notifications, additional points.
Additional Variables – the common stuff you expect to see in a learning system, from progress bars to non-linear learning
Metrics and Reporting – Seriously, visual metrics is a must here and what data you are capturing. It is very rare to find metrics that tell you a composite of what content is being purchased, how often, and by date and location – with trend lines. Let’s say I ran a campaign to purchase some courses to my customers. Wouldn’t I want to know which courses where popular, when did they buy, and any upsells you have? I’ve seen systems that can do some this at the user level, which is fine – but what do you, or how will you, utilize that data? Data is only as good as how you can utilize it. Big fan BTW, of financial metrics within a system. Huge if I am selling content.
What didn’t matter
Workforce development – If you are seeking customer education and want workforce development, you need to go back and think what are your priorities and why would your clients want any workforce development capabilities for their learners or themselves?
How much capital you raised. Happy for you, but take a look at Workramp – lots of capital, outdated system. They launched a new social feature recently that was, I think, a discussion board or something like that. I remember telling them that was popular in the 90s and is no longer the must-have. Nice folks, outdated system. Anyway, they land funding.
Who are your clients? Again, nice for pitches, but seriously, not relevant.
Your NPS score. Don’t laugh; I see this a lot. ZERO relevance. Nobody is buying your system based on your NPS score. If they do, whoever oversees L&D or Training, should re-assign them to “special projects.”
Bracket Time!!!
Opening Round – I round up, i.e., vendor scores 83.6, it becomes 84.
Score Results (analysis – short analysis will follow)
Group A
Thought Industries 93 Lambda Suite 74
SkillJar 87 Learning Cart 84
Docebo 91 Brainier 86
Acorn LMS 85 Raven360 84
Group B
Eurekos 94 Knowledge Anywhere 76
Cornerstone Learning 89 Learn Upon 85
Absorb 88 Northpass 75
D2L 90 TalentLMS 82
Analysis
SkillJar, which hits all the high notes around UI/UX, and a lot of quality metrics – is useful for customer education, but lacks the full robustness expected for such a platform specifically for customer education (this is due to them being a combo, as they do not have a 90% or higher client base that is customer-focused only) – This is always the challenge with combo systems who are either 50-50 or 40-60 or 35-65 – whereas the second number is external, and the earlier number is internal – i.e. employees. A combo system must offer across the board, and way too many skew employees, even if they have a 40-60 ratio for example. Learning Cart – this is customer-education oriented in a huge way. While they landed the shots for a chunk of the customer ed criteria, there were enough misses that they fell just short. UI/UX was missed quite a bit for me—still a legit threat – system-wise.
Docebo, more on them in the next round, topped off a tough Brainier, that I think a lot of people fail to see as a potential for customer education. Unlimited tenants -at no charge, nice UI/UX, and solid metrics help them. But the metrics are not top tier for CE (not yet, at least), and skills, well, there is always next year. I like the system, though, and often tell folks about them. Docebo is 40-60 – customer education being 60%, Brainier is not, so that played a minor point or two here. Nevertheless, a talented group of folks, err customer-ed system.
Cornerstone knocking off Learn Upon, I am sure will raise a few eyebrows. Especially since Learn Upon is recognized by many as customer-education-focused. I think of chunk of this is due to marketing, but I do look at them when I have a client on the CE side of the house. I like the system; there is a lot to like, with many capabilities. But for this analysis, Cornerstone, despite their marketing angle of united talent platform, which crushes the premise that they can provide customer education – Cornerstone calls it extended enterprise, still scored higher for a few reasons.
A new metrics experience will roll out in April. I cannot tell you the specifics (embargo here), but it definitely will change one huge negative, that I have of Cornerstone on the admin side when it comes to their metrics look and feel – Excel 2000 rules, and reporting. They have few other newbies too.
Skills wise, no contest. Cornerstone is the best system for skills management (based on my template). LearnUpon is below average. Cornerstone all-around has more capabilities for customer education, than LearnUpon, including the ability to show data for each sub-tenant, something LU cannot do. Both offer a mobile app, but if you are a Cornerstone client and a client of bealink, you can have the Cornerstone mobile app, white-labeled (fee-based) – but you need to be a client of both systems. One item that baffles me is that in 2023, with LU – you still cannot change the text of the labels or tabs. That didn’t impact the overall score, but still baffling. Both vendors charge for extra tenants, and Cornerstone they sell the “extend enterprise” package as an add-on. I hope this is something they will reconsider. LU metrics are acceptable, just not at the level of Cornerstone when it comes to metrics essential for CE.
D2L is another vendor that I believe a lot of people will think – customer-education them? Once again, TalentLMS does an exceptional job at marketing when it comes to customer education, and they have a lot to like, but D2L, which does a poor job of marketing around customer education, player functionality to player functionality, is a robust CE system. Want unlimited tenants? Check. Want a strong e-commerce system? Check. Storefront? Yep. Skills are above average (and more so than the industry at large, which is just getting to the below avg mark – on, well avg). D2L provides data where you can extract and identify future sales potential. They definitely need to improve these metrics for customer education as a whole, but they are far better than many vendors who play in the CE space, including TalentLMS.
Round Three
Results
Group A
Thought Industries 93 SkillJar 87
Docebo 91 Acorn LMS 85
Group B
Eurekos 94 Cornerstone Learning 89
D2L 90 Absorb 88
Analysis
The big ones were definitely in Group B, well, if you are unaware or haven’t paid attention to the previous bracket years, around this vendor known as Eurekos. If your responses are “who?” then yes, it is a shocker. If you are aware, but not that aware, Eurekos should be one to explore.
The Cornerstone strengths and limitations have been listed above, so let’s cover a few of the pluses of Eurekos. First and foremost, this is a customer-education-focused system, which means functionality wise across the board, it is targeting only customer education. UI/UX is very good, unlimited tenants – included at no charge, mobile app can be white-labeled – a few threes there; and they have a couple of new items soon to launch (embargo) that will continue to show off their commitment to CE. I love that the invoice monthly – which is perfect for the customer-ed side of the house, especially if you are going to grow, OR prefer to actually pay for the users who are using that system for the month.
That means no annual upfront (although if you want you can). For me, as someone who has done CE for companies and an association, this business price model is the one you will want, especially if you are seeking either a profit center OR needing to be cost conservative. Skills are average, Cornerstone as noted, is far superior. If you need customization due to your specific CE needs, Eurekos will do it for you. No partner sending – which Cornerstone prefers – although they now have the capability to do internal – and not outsource (and not just for customer ed). Not a factor here – but Eurekos is a very affordable system, by far in the industry, which I think scares some folks off. I mean affordable and good in the same sentence? Inconceivable. Actually, it’s not – winner Eurekos. Next.
I like Absorb, but against D2L, unless you purchase add-ons such Create, Analyze, and Engage, D2L is going to be better. I also like the fact that D2L offers, granted as an add-on a combination of skills assessment, coaching, or mentoring (depending on how you use it), role-playing solution, known as Bongo. It still amazes me how cool this product it is, and ideal for customer education especially around P2P learning, talking to experts, which could be achieved with customer ed/partner training and product training. D2L scored higher with the API connections, granted it is an add-on using Workato (Docebo, and Thought use them as well; Cornerstone has their own very robust connector solution). Two top systems, and only one winner. D2L.
Round Four
Results
Thought Industries 93 Docebo 91
Eurekos 94 D2L 90
It’s a Final Group of Systems that indeed are top in their class – the customer education/partner training/product training/B2B/B2C, even association space (if you choose). The biggest one, or at least the one matchup that will get folks going – compare, compare, is the TI vs Docebo one.
Two established systems – that is right established. Both scored well with UI/UX, although TI has a better overall UI/UX than Docebo, so a few points there. Metrics out of the box (That means it comes with the system), are a strong suit for Thought Industries compared to Docebo. They – TI are a customer education-focused learning system and the metrics and data they present, back it up. Docebo is a combo system, and yes the majority of their clients are using Docebo for customer-ed, but unless you purchase Learning Analytics (Add-on), the metric will get closer, and still thought scores higher. Skills, Docebo wins this hands-down. TI is the work-in-progress, side of the house, better than many, but not at the level of Docebo.
Docebo has a mobile app, which can be white-labeled (fee-based). Thought it gets complicated. The system does not come with a mobile app, rather they will provide the client with all the files, etc. the client will need to create the mobile app. The client is responsible for adding it to the respective app stores. If you want TI to build the mobile app for you, they will (it is fee-based). But it doesn’t come with the system itself.
Thought Industries Panoramas (the sub-tenants/children) and what each can do, is the best in the industry. What you can do with each one is extremely impressive. Far more so, what is doable with Docebo. Docebo charges extra for “extended enterprise” (again, the legacy term, that probably existed before the Ice Age). Under EE, you get five sub-tenants. With TI, their usual package is 20 or so. Then you pay extra. You can decline EE and go with Pages as an option, which works if you are just interested in some of the capabilities, mainly around skinning, uploading of folks, data for each page, etc. – similar to many multi-tenants. Still, to get the full power of what EE offers, you will want EE. I am not a fan of having to pay yearly for it, either. Both offer Workato – aka Connect solution as an add-on. The big monster for me is Helium, which I have written before about – READ – scroll down to read the paragraphs about it. Docebo can’t do it; in fact, nobody can truly do headless technology except Thought Industries. Sure, many vendors will say they do headless technology, but that is misleading. If you check out the definition of headless technology and compare that to Helium, you will see it is a perfect match.
Championship
Results
Eurekos 94 Thought Industries 93
The champ has been defeated. You could go with either system, depending on what you seek or need. The mobile app lack of, by TI is like missing a layup, multiple times over. Helium definitely is huge, but Eurekos counters by willing to do mass customization (fee, but not outrageous). Skills wise, Eurekos far defeats TI, which is another weak point for TI. I get the non-skills angle for customer-education-focused systems. Still, they compete more and more with combos, who either have some or solid skills capabilities or none, and if the former, it has caused CE-focused systems to recognize that they need to add. Eurekos just has done a better job than TI.
A component of the memory model that may be useful to teachers as they think about feedback is retrieval practice. Agarwal and Bain (4) define retrieval as “…when we access information and bring it to mind” (p. 10) and retrieval practice as “… when we practice bringing information to mind. We tend to think that most learning occurs during the encoding stage, but a wealth of research demonstrates that learning is strengthened during retrieval” (p. 11). Even if students manage to encode information and skills into long term memory, they need to be able to access this information when needed. The ability to retrieve information and skills when needed is a product of storage strength (how deeply/strongly the information was encoded) and retrieval strength (how often we have retrieved this information in the past). Information may be firmly stored in long term memory but if we don’t practice retrieving that information, we may lose the “path” to it and be less able to use the information when needed to solve problems. Retrieval practice is key—the more practice we get retrieving the information, the stronger our retrieval strength is, increasing the chance we can use the information when needed. Timing is important. A “gap” between encoding and retrieval practice is optimal: “We recommend spacing retrieval practice at least a few days after the lesson. Why? Again, the more challenging the retrieval, the better; so the more spacing, the better.” (4, p. 102). This timing is particularly applicable to teacher decisions about feedback. In many instances it may be useful for teachers to provide “space” between students’ learning, student work, teacher feedback, and when students are instructed to think about and use feedback to revise their work.
Providing Feedback to Elicit Retrieval Practice
When Monitoring Learning, Ask Questions of All Students. Requiring all students to answer the questions teachers use to monitor and adjust instruction yields better information for these decisions (5) (6). Providing opportunities for all students to answer a question (e.g., with response cards, on whiteboards, through choral responses, through partner discussion, using technology quiz tools or online polls), rather than calling on a specific student (even randomly) promotes retrieval practice for all students (because each student needs to access and produce the information requested) and gives students better information about what they know and what they still need to study (4). It also gives teachers more complete information about whether students are ready for them to move on to the next concept or unit.
Time Feedback Based on Purpose. Research on the best timing for feedback indicates that immediate feedback allows students to quickly correct errors while delayed feedback can lead to better transfer of learning (7) (8). It is important to correct errors as soon as possible so that students do not encode them in memory. However, delaying feedback will build in some spacing between initial learning and retrieval practice, which will increase the challenge (and the benefit) for the student of retrieving the information as they use the feedback.
Example: Feedback That Encourages Retrieval Practice.
[Note: This fictionalized example is a compilation of classroom practices based on discussions with teachers and our own experiences.]
Fourth grade students in Ms. Diehl’s class worked on a lab activity in class as part of a unit on electrical circuits. The lab was focused on building a circuit in series with the goal that students would ultimately understand the differences between a series and a parallel circuit. Students completed the lab activity with a partner where they built the circuit in series from electrical components. Each student drew a picture of their circuit in their science notebooks and discussed with their partner some questions meant to help them understand how the circuit worked and learn necessary vocabulary. During the activity, Ms. Diehl walked around the room, listened in on discussions between partners, and asked probing questions to determine if students understood the vocabulary and concepts. Ms. Diehl verbally highlighted and corrected common misconceptions for the whole class. At the end of the activity, she drew a picture of a sample circuit to which students could compare their own drawings. Each student then wrote a brief explanation of how the circuit worked using a list of vocabulary words Ms. Diehl wrote on the board. Some students who needed language supports used sentence frames provided by Ms. Diehl. Ms. Diehl collected the science notebooks and wrote some questions in the margins of the notebooks to help students clarify their thinking. After the next lab, which focused on parallel circuits, students used time in class to review Ms. Diehl’s feedback on both lab descriptions and then wrote about the similarities and differences between series and parallel circuits. During class, all students had an opportunity to illustrate a circuit, discuss answers to questions with a partner, and write an explanation of what they had learned about circuits. Ms. Diehl provided immediate verbal feedback to correct misconceptions and a model for students to check their drawings. Ms. Diehl also gave students delayed feedback in their science notebooks, which students had an opportunity to use in their inferences about the similarities and differences between the two kinds of circuits. In this way, Ms. Diehl both helped students encode the correct information and elicited retrieval practice as students remembered concepts and vocabulary in their later thinking.
A guest writer shares his love and admiration for Tom Cruise, who has captivated him for more than 40 years. Which actor has inspired you, moved you or touched your heart?
Each of us is accountable for something. Or someone. Organisations carry the same responsibility. In companies, accounting is the language of all business. Every business needs to be honest about its numbers. No fledging. No inflating. No exaggerating. Good accounting helps a business make decisions and plays a critical role in the planning and controlling processes. To get a better understanding of how companies balance books and what it takes to be an accountant, we sat down with a qualified Chartered Accountant, Nhyira, to learn more.
Meet Nhyira
Tell us a bit about your background.
My name is Nhyira Asante (p.s. you don’t say it, the way it’s spelt) and I’m a Chartered Accountant from South Africa currently working as an investment analyst.
What made you decide to go into accounting?
The age-old question – well I’m in this specific field via my mom’s direction. She always wanted to be an accountant but didn’t get to be one until later on in life, so she encouraged me to pursue it. When I saw the stars aligning in terms of academics, I gave it a full-hearted “go” and I’ve often looked back since then (I jest, it’s a pretty fulfilling career).
Understanding accountancy
For those who don’t know, what does an accountant do?
An accountant essentially works at making sure the financial side of a business is kept in check by recording transactional information and then providing insight into what all the numbers mean.
What courses does it take to become an accountant? What courses did you study?
I went to Wits University in Johannesburg (University of the Witwatersrand) and studied a Bachelor of Accounting Sciences as my undergrad and then a year of postgrad for my Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA).
What additional certifications, exams, and memberships have you had to complete as part of your career journey?
As soon as CTA was done, I wrote my first Board exam which is a technical exam, and thereafter my second and final Board exam which is a more “practical” exam.
Are there different types of accountants?
Yes, we can break it down by qualification. There are professional accountants, chartered accounts, chartered certified accountants, management accountants, etc. All have a similar focus on providing accurate financial information to assess a business’s performance and forecast future performance. Then there are the roles that accountants perform as well – they can be bookkeepers, financial managers, CFOs, investment analysts, entrepreneurs – any number of things.
What essential skills should every accountant have for success?
The key is to have a good handle on the organisation and pay attention to detail.
Do aspiring accountants need to be good at math to succeed?
Fortunately, yes otherwise people would sue us consistently and constantly.
What qualities and traits do you need to succeed as an accountant?
The traits that help me in my current role in a more personal sense are a very strong prayer life for strength (the job is immensely challenging) and the ability to persevere no matter the challenges.
What are the daily challenges you face as an accountant?
Usual stress of meeting near-term deadlines in the most efficient and accurate manner.
In what sectors can accountants work and where are they most sought after?
Luckily, we can work across many sectors – as long as there is a need for someone to understand financial information there will be a need for accountants.
What are some misconceptions about being an accountant?
That we are boring, stingy, penny pushers that people should ignore.
The life of an accountant
What does a typical day in your life look like?
My journey is a little different from a typical accountant’s – I work in an investment bank so my day-to-day involves covering admin and transactional points that may arise on one of the deals (selling and buying corporate businesses and providing other strategic advice to company leaders) I handle – this includes preparing materials, taking notes, valuing companies etc.
When you started on this journey, what were your vision and mission?
My vision was to help people with their businesses and financing so entrepreneurs would be able to execute their dreams and visions.
My mission also slowly became about debunking the information barrier that exists between people who are well versed in how to work in a corporate, investing etc. and those that don’t have access to that information.
What are some of the daily habits you do that contribute to your success?
I try to take notes of everything I need to do, to help me keep track (I’ve always heard that a short pencil is better than a long memory)
Motivating and challenging team members towards a greater common goal
I exercise integrity and try to be reliable which results in more trust in the system for a more conducive work environment.
What’s the biggest sacrifice you’ve had to make, and would you make it again if necessary?
The biggest sacrifice is an ongoing motif in my current role – my job is quite intense, and as a result, I’ve had to sacrifice quality time with family to cater to my job.
Challenges of being an accountant
Have you experienced any failures or setbacks as an accountant and what lessons did you learn from that experience?
Definitely, in the words of Donnie McClurkin – “we don’t fall, we get up” (paraphrased).
I had quite the challenge in my post-grad year but managed to pass what is a dreaded year for most accounting students.
What do you know now about being an accountant that you didn’t know before you started your career?
Accountant roles post qualification are so wide and varied – it enables you to do anything you would want to do.
Who inspires you and pushes you to keep going?
I want to build a more beautiful life for my parents – the idea that I will be able to make that happen day one day keeps me going.
Is work-life balance something you can achieve in your job as an accountant?
In general – it is within reach however in my current role, it’s rare.
What are some non-negotiable things you practice in your role?
Preparing for meetings
Having a post-debrief session with yourself to understand what was discussed in a meeting (Especially when there’s new information you’ve been exposed to)
Being diligent and excellent in the work I submit to the team (to the best of my ability)
Do you have any apps or tools you use to stay organised?
What words of encouragement or advice would you give someone looking to become an accountant?
Know your why (your purpose for pursuing this career) – once that is established and unlikely to change, you’ll be able to contextualise what you’re giving up getting your dream and decide whether it’s worth it or not.
Always practise gratitude for any opportunity that is presented to you – it opens countless other doors and opportunities.
Accounting for something
When working with clients, what are the easiest and most challenging things you must deal with?
Clients are easy to engage with generally, and it’s fun to win them over.
They can also be quite slow in providing responses that you would need to action your own work which is challenging.
How important is teamwork in this field and how do you ensure you build a strong team?
Teamwork as in most fields is important – building a strong team takes intentionality in building trust and a safe space for team members to share their knowledge and ask questions.
What are the possible career paths for someone who has completed (or is about to complete) their accounting qualification?
Moving overseas using your qualification, financial manager, investment analyst, entrepreneur etc.
The proudest moment in your career so far?
Qualifying as a chartered accountant.
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