Microsoft Excel Training Programs & Classes

Excel classes are available at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Some courses cover a broad range of topics, while others focus in on specific aspects of Microsoft Excel. Beginner, intermediate, or advanced courses will vary in duration and length depending on where you take the course. Courses may be completed online or in-person, depending on the course vendor. There is a lot of overlap in what is covered in different Excel courses, so be sure to carefully read the course descriptions when you choose the program that is best for you.

Beginning Excel

In a beginning Excel course, students develop basic knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite and are introduced to Excel specifically. Skills are developed in creating Excel spreadsheets and setting up simple calculations and formulas. Students learn how to make changes to an existing worksheet as well how to format new worksheets. A beginning Excel course also covers print set-up and techniques in working with large spreadsheets.

Intermediate Excel

In an intermediate Excel course, students expand on their basic skills in order to implement additional tools such as graphs, charts, and advanced formulas. An intermediate course develops skills in graph development and modification, the addition of graphic elements, and the customization of entire workbooks (multiple worksheets that work together). Students in this course may also use Pivot Tables or Pivot Charts, which are interactive graphic elements within the Excel program.

Advanced Excel

In an advanced course, students learn how to automate information based on the skills they have developed in beginning-level and intermediate-level Excel courses. An advanced course also provides information on how to combine multiple worksheets to handle larger, more complex sets of data. Additional coursework covers data analysis, importing or exporting data, and coordinating Excel documents with internet sources. This course may even give students skills to develop worksheets in XML (Extensible Markup Language).

Excel Skills for Business

Students work at various levels, from beginner to advanced, to hone the Excel skills useful for running a business. Some examples include managing large databases, creating professional dashboards, creating automation, performing complex calculations, and extracting meaning from datasets. This in-depth course requires five hours of work per week for a duration of six months.

Data Analysis Using Excel

This course is designed for students going into business and analysis and focuses on the uses of Excel spreadsheets and other tools to organize and filter data, including advanced graphing and charting. The course explains the use of pivot charts, scatter plots, histograms, pie graphs, bar graphs, and more. The course takes four weeks, with one to three hours of study time each week.

Data Analysis with Excel Pivot

This course focuses on one Excel data analysis tool, the Excel Pivot table The course explores the options for using the Pivot table to transfer raw data into meaningful, usable, accessible information. This is a six hour course.

Mastering Excel Macros and VBA

This course teaches students to use macros and VBA to automate Excel tasks. Students also learn how to use VBA to create dynamic code and how to use Excel VBA forms most efficiently. This course lasts approximately five hours plus practice time.

Analyzing and Visualizing Data With Excel

This course is designed for users with some familiarity with Excel and covers a variety of Excel topics such as Pivots and charts. The course is completed over six weeks and introduces Excel's latest versions and features. Some courses in analyzing and visualizing data with Excel include work with creating and manipulating databases.

There are a variety of options for Excel training programs. These programs may be found at community colleges, private training centers, or as part of a continuing education course. There are also some employers, such as temp agencies, that offer Excel training to employees. Microsoft, the company that produces the Excel software, also offers an exam to become a Microsoft Certified Application Specialist in Excel.

Excel training courses are typically offered in a one-day format. Training can last anywhere from a one-hour basic introduction to a full eight-hour day of training. Excel training programs may be broken down into different levels from beginner to advanced, as well as according to different topics of study. As mentioned in the course list, students may learn anything from how to create tables and formulas to how to input data and share files.

Excel training programs are also offered in conjunction with the various systems and versions available. For example, a student may take an Excel for beginners class based on Excel 2010, and another student may take a similar course based on the Excel 2013 or Excel 2016 version. Each version of Excel has minor differences in how the programs operate and compute data.