Course Overview
This course is a 5 day intensive, high impact dive into excel. In this first course of the Excel Skills for Business participants will learn the Essentials of Microsoft Excel. Within 5 days they will learn to expertly navigate the Excel user interface, perform basic calculations with formulas and functions, professionally format spreadsheets, and create visualizations of data through charts and graphs.
Whether the participants want to fill in the gaps for better efficiency and productivity, or have never used Excel before, this course will set them up with a solid foundation to become a confident user and develop more advanced skills in the later courses. This course brings practical teaching that will be with the participants every step of the way as they understand excel. A broad range of practice quizzes and challenges will provide great opportunities to build up their skillset.
As participants work through each new challenge with the instructor, they will in no time surprise themselves with how far they have come. Spreadsheet software is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of software used in workplaces across the world. Learning to confidently operate this software means adding a highly valuable asset to their employability and efficiency portfolio. At a time when digital skills jobs are growing much faster than non-digital jobs, the participants will be able to position themselves ahead of the rest by adding Excel skills to their portfolio.
In this course participants will learn about key foundational features of Excel which includes the Excel user interface, basic Excel terminology, how to operate essential navigational controls in Excel and how to perform basic data entry with Excel spreadsheets. The syntax of formulas is very important in Excel so participants will get introduced to formulas and functions and learn how to write them, use them to perform calculations and understand the different cell references. Formatting helps to highlight key messages and make the data presentable so this course also covers several formatting tools like font formatting, borders, alignment, number formatting, as well as the Excel styles and themes.
Participant will also learn how to manage spreadsheets. As such they will be able to find data with Filter and Sort, retrieve and change data using Find and Replace, and use Conditional Formatting to highlight specific data. They will understand how to optimize spreadsheet for printing by managing margins, orientation, headers & footers, and more. Finally, charts are one of the most common ways to present data visually so this course will walk participants through creating and modifying charts in Excel.
Practical examples and activities of real life excel scenarios shall be used throughout. This shall be facilitated by the employ of group activities, scenario analyses and group discussions to help participant’s gain vigorous understanding of excel.
Target Audience
This course is suitable for the following personnel;
- Finance and accounting
- Human resource
- Management
- Sales and marketing
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, participants should be able to:
- Evaluate and apply the key foundational features of Excel.
- Demonstrate understanding of the syntax of formulas in Excel.
- Apply Formatting to highlight key messages and make excel data presentable.
- Demonstrate understanding of data management and working with data in excel.
- Evaluate and apply spreadsheet optimization for printing.
- Demonstrate understanding of chart creation and modification in Excel.
Content Covered
The following content will be covered in the course:
Critical Core of Excel
- Introduction
- Taking Charge of Excel
- Navigating and Selecting
- View Options
- Data Entry, Data Types, Editing and Deleting
- Fill Handle 2.
Performing calculations
- Introduction
- Formulas
- Formulas in Context
- Functions I: SUM and AUTOSUM
- Functions II: AVERAGE, MIN and MAX
- Absolute Cell References
- Absolute Cell References
- Calculations across sheets
Formatting
- Introduction
- Formatting
- Borders
- Alignment Tools
- Format Painter
- Number Formats
- Styles and Themes
Working with Data
- Introduction
- Managing Rows and Columns
- Find and Replace
- Filtering
- Sorting
- Conditional Formatting
Printing
- Introduction
- Print Preview
- Orientation, Margins and Scale
- Page Breaks
- Print Titles
- Headers and Footers
Charts
- Introduction
- Basic Chart Types: Pie, Column and Line Charts
- Move and Resize Charts
- Change Chart Style & Type
- Modify Chart Elements
Assessment
A variety of assessment tools will be used throughout the course to gauge the level of understanding of the participants.
(i). Quizzes
After some of the topics have been covered, there will be mini quizzes that will be handed out and students have to complete them based on the material they just covered.
(ii). Group Discussions
After some of the topics, group discussion activities will be initiated and the aim of these group discussions is for the participants to share their understanding of concepts covered and by sharing, they display their understanding of the content
(iii). Scenario Analysis
Scenario analysis will also be used as an assessment tool. Participants will be given a particular scenario pertaining to what has just been covered and then asked how they would navigate through the scenario. The answers they give would indicate how well they understood the material.
(iv) Final Written Test
At the end of the course there will be a final written test. The final written test takes all the content learned throughout the course and tests the participants’ knowledge all at once. The outcome of this final test is what will determine if participants pass or fail the course.