About this course
Learn the spreadsheet skills hiring managers expect from admin and operations roles. This workshop covers formulas, lookups, cleaning messy data, and building clear reports you can reuse at work.
Each session includes guided practice and a short take-home task. By the end, you will have sample files you can attach to applications or share with your team as proof of capability.
Syllabus
- Module 1: Foundations & Expectations – Overview of the spreadsheet interface, basic navigation, and workshop goals.
- Workbook Navigation & Formatting – Best practices for organizing data, using freeze panes, shortcut keys, and formatting cells cleanly.
- Core Excel Formulas – Essential mathematical functions including
SUM,AVERAGE,COUNT, and relative vs. absolute cell referencing. - Logical Functions – Practical application of
IF,AND, andORstatements to automate basic decision-making logic. - Module 2: Guided Practice & Feedback – Hands-on exercise sessions applying concepts to real-world scenarios with direct feedback.
- Data Search & Lookups – Mastering
VLOOKUP,XLOOKUP, andINDEX/MATCHto combine and retrieve data across sheets. - Data Cleaning Techniques – Handling missing data, removing duplicates, and using text functions (
TRIM,CONCAT,LEFT,RIGHT). - Conditional Formatting – Highlighting trends, outliers, and key status updates visually based on custom rules.
- Data Validation Tools – Creating drop-down lists and setting input restrictions to maintain data consistency.
- Module 3: Final Assignment & Next Steps – Completing a practical end-of-course project and preparing reusable templates.
- PivotTables & Summaries – Aggregating large datasets efficiently to summarize metrics without complex formulas.
- Basic Business Visualization – Creating clear column, bar, and line charts tailored for administrative and executive reports.
- Building Reusable Reports – Designing structured spreadsheets that can be updated effortlessly with new periodic data.
- Portfolio & File Sharing – Preparing downloadable sample files to attach to job applications as proof of capability.
