Maple and other software vs. Excel

Excuse me if this is a silly question. I am a student in a Steel Design I course and my teacher is requiring that we use math software to write programs to solve problems. He will not let us use excel, stating that the industry is moving away from Excel and towards more sophisticated software. While I see the value in programming, I am not wholly convinced of his position on Excel. I work as an intern in a structural engineering office and all we use is Excel. So my question is, how often do you use other math software and do you think that the industry id moving away from Excel?