Excel is Microsoft’s spreadsheet software program. Released in 1987, the spreadsheet software includes the basic features of spreadsheets, including cells, rows, columns, and functions. Professionals and students use Excel to perform calculations, automate tasks, and manage datasets. Excel is used in many areas, including marketing, finance, and human resources. With the Analysis ToolPak, Data Analysts can rely on Excel to perform data analysis quickly. You can access Excel as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, which includes access to other Microsoft programs like PowerPoint and Word.
What Can You Do with Excel Training?
Excel’s many features and tools make it the industry-leading spreadsheet program. With Excel, you can perform calculations, share workbooks with team members, import financial transactions, and analyze datasets. Businesses also use Excel for time and task management, as well as performance reporting. The program is essential for most office workers who work with data.
Learning Excel will directly help you work with data, and it can also help you become a more efficient employee. With Excel, you can use macros to manipulate data and automate repetitive tasks. Proficiency in Excel can expand your job opportunities, as many professions require knowledge of Microsoft 365 programs.
What Will I Learn in an Excel Class?
Excel courses provide students with a thorough way to learn the program and its tools. Beginner-level courses often cover the basics of Excel, like calculations, basic functions, charts, formatting, and printing. Intermediate-level classes explore more complex functions while advanced Excel classes cover advanced database functions, creating macros, and What-If Analysis. Depending on how specialized the Excel course you enroll in is, you may find emphasis placed on learning functions, Pivot Table, data visualization and analysis, and project management skills.
Functions
Excel has many pre-made formulas, also known as functions. Functions perform calculations by using values in your spreadsheet. Knowing functions allows you to perform both simple and complex calculations in Excel. Beginner-level Excel courses cover basic functions. As you progress, classes will cover more complex functions.
Pivot Table
Pivot Table is a tool in Excel used to calculate, summarize, and analyze large amounts of data. With PivotTables, you’ll be able to look for patterns and trends in your datasets. When learning intermediate-level Excel, you will typically cover Pivot Table, which is one of Excel's most powerful tools.
Data Visualization
Excel is the go-to program for data visualization. With Excel, you can organize your data and arrange it into a dynamic visualization. Power View, a data visualization tool, is available in Excel and allows users to create interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals. You can take an Excel class that focuses on using the program for data visualization to maximize its potential.
Data Analysis
Data visualization and analysis go hand-in-hand with Excel. With just the click of a button, Excel will analyze your data and produce visuals in the task pane for you. Additionally, you can use Excel to receive high-level visual summaries, trends, and patterns of your data. The ease of crafting visualizations and analysis in Excel has made it one of the most popular applications in the field.
Project Management
Excel allows users to share worksheets and workbooks. Teams across departments use this feature to promote collaboration and efficiency. In an Excel course, you’ll learn about these sharing features and how to monitor the work of others via Excel. This makes Excel an excellent addition to any Project Manager’s toolbox since they can use Excel to not only plan projects but to monitor the pace of a project.
How Hard is It to Learn Excel?
The difficulty of Excel varies from person to person. The reason someone uses Excel will probably influence how difficult it is for them to learn. For example, some use Excel for scheduling, while others use it for statistical analysis. The latter type of person will have much more to learn about Excel’s tools and features compared to the former. Additionally, some learners will become familiar with the interface more quickly than others, which impacts learning.
If you have prior experience with spreadsheets, learning Excel will be easier than for those who have no prior experience and need to understand spreadsheets at the basic level first. If you’re using Excel to manage data, your prior experience with data also affects the difficulty of learning.
Learning the basic features of Excel can take just a few hours, while the more advanced functions will take much longer. It’s estimated that proficiency in Excel takes anywhere from 20 to 40 hours, depending on where you’re starting in terms of prior experience. Continuous practice with Excel will help you become proficient in the program.
Should I Learn Excel in Person or Online?
Interested in learning Excel? You can enroll in an in-person, live online, or asynchronous training course today.
In-person Excel courses take place in a traditional learning environment with an instructor leading the class. These courses may take place during the week, in the evenings, or on weekends. If you need a more flexible method of learning, you can enroll in a live online class. A live instructor will teach you remotely during a scheduled class. This course delivery allows you to learn from the comfort of your home or office.
For those who cannot attend a scheduled class, some schools offer asynchronous courses. Asynchronous courses provide students with online access to learning material like video lectures and readings. Students must find time to follow along during their free time. This learning method is a great option for those who cannot attend a scheduled class but have the motivation to follow along with course materials without live instruction.
Can I Learn Excel Free Online?
The internet provides a great resource for learning Excel fundamentals for free. Microsoft provides tutorials in Excel on their website and YouTube channel. Additionally, schools like Noble Desktop offer Excel content on their YouTube channels, including live streams. Online communities have also created forums where you can ask questions as you learn, including troubleshooting questions. You can contact your local library for physical and online books that cover the basics of Excel as well.
What Should I Learn Alongside Excel?
Having a solid foundation in mathematics can make it easier to remember Excel formulas and shortcuts. This foundation will also benefit you if you plan to use Excel for data analysis. Additionally, Excel integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications like PowerPoint and Access. Learning these other programs can help prepare you to use Excel and other Microsoft products.
Industries That Use Excel
Excel is a go-to software for most offices, particularly those dealing with large swaths of data. From education to financial services to the leisure and hospitality industry, computer-based roles these days oftentimes require candidates to know about spreadsheet programs, if not Excel specifically.
Tech
Phoenix’s tech industry is flourishing as the city boasts a healthy R&D environment, high-tech manufacturing, software development, and next-gen technologies. The prevalence of higher education institutions in the region has also influenced the number of tech startups in the area looking to hire from the talented pool of graduates. In the tech industry, Excel finds numerous uses, from project management to inventory control to data analysis.
Financial Services
The financial services industry in Phoenix has helped establish the city as a financial capital of the US. With a rapidly growing metropolitan area, the city has seen several financial giants establish operations and numerous residents employed in the industry. Excel helps employees in financial services collaborate, automate tasks, perform high-level calculations, and create financial reports.
Leisure and Hospitality
Leisure and hospitality is one of the main industries of Phoenix thanks to the city’s beautiful desert landscape, museums, restaurants, shops, and recreational activities. This industry uses Excel for data management, financial analysis, scheduling, and inventory tracking.
Excel Job Titles and Salaries
Do you have experience with Excel and want to apply it to a new career? Here are several career paths that utilize Excel.
Financial Analyst
Financial Analysts have a background in finance, business, or accounting and use it to make recommendations to clients and businesses for investments. This role involves looking at predictions and trends to provide their clients or employers with data-driven insights. In the US, the average salary for a Financial Analyst is $76,000.
Digital Analyst
Companies often hire Digital Analysts as part of their marketing team. Responsibilities for this role include analyzing the effectiveness and audience reach of digital marketing campaigns run by the team. This role typically requires knowledge of Google Analytics, Excel, and critical thinking. Digital Analysts in the US make an average annual salary of $88,000.
Data Analyst
Data Analysts must summarize, analyze, and visualize data. They then communicate their insights with their clients or management and provide them with recommendations based on their analysis. Data Analysts help hospitals, schools, and retail stores make informed business decisions. In the US, Data Analysts earn an average annual income of $77,000.
Excel Classes Near Me
Looking to enroll in an Excel course soon? Explore the options available to you below.
Noble Desktop offers a live online Excel Bootcamp on weekdays and evenings. The three-day course will help you gain proficiency in Excel as you learn about functions, formulas, PivotTables, macros, and tools and techniques commonly used by Excel users. Over the course, you’ll go from beginner-level lessons in Excel, through intermediate-level skills and tools, and wrap up with advanced-level Excel training.
Ledet Training offers Excel training courses both in-person and online. In Microsoft Excel 101, students will receive an introduction to the spreadsheet program. This is a one-day course where students will create workbooks and worksheets, work with formulas, and learn how to increase their proficiency in Excel. After completing the introductory course, students may enroll in Ledet’s Microsoft Excel 201 and Microsoft Excel 301, the intermediate and advanced-level Excel courses. After finishing this sequence of courses, students should understand Excel best practices.
Certstaffix Training’s Excel Level 1 course provides students with an introduction to spreadsheets and the basic concepts of Excel. The one-day live online course will walk students through setting up workbooks, entering data, and formatting data in Excel. Additionally, students will learn about calculations and visualizations. Certstaffix offers intermediate and advanced-level Excel courses as follow-ups to Excel Level 1.
AdvantEdge’s Excel Basic Training is a four-hour introductory Excel course. In the four hours, the instructor will cover several topics, including using functions, moving and copying data, and basic formatting. Contact AdvantEdge for information on private training sessions for groups of five or more.
General Assembly’s Excel Bootcamp offers beginners an overview of Excel topics. This intense one-day class combines lessons from the school’s two-day workshop and pushes students to pick up the fundamentals of Excel to solve complex problems at an accelerated pace. Students interested in enrolling in this course should have a general familiarity with Excel.
Excel Corporate Training
Looking to enroll your employees in Excel training? Noble Desktop offers easy Excel training for teams with their corporate training options. Noble offers training in the fundamentals of Excel, along with intermediate and advanced-level Excel. Training is available live online with an instructor or onsite at your offices.
Noble Desktop offers group class vouchers for companies interested in ordering in bulk at a discount. With this option, you may choose which courses are available to your employees who will then schedule and attend a class that works with their schedule. For more information about corporate training with Noble Desktop, email corporate@nobledesktop.com.