Essential digital skills for the workplace: Word, Excel and PowerPoint (foundation-level 1)

What is the course about?

This course will provide you with the digital skills you need to do perform in an office environment. You will learn how to create well presented and organised Word documents such as letters or short reports containing tables, data and images. You will practise organising numerical data in Excel so you can make decisions based on statistics and analyse patterns such as sales, income and expenditure. You will work on producing visually appealing slide shows in PowerPoint including how to make the presentation easy and enjoyable to understand. By the end of the course you will be confident you can carry out the most essential administrative office tasks.

What will we cover?

• identifying the key feature of Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• identifying what we use Word, Excel and PowerPoint for
• creating office type documents including use of templates
• formatting and laying out documents so they are easy to read and highlight key information
• saving and organising files – creating a file-management system
• using and manipulating tables
• editing multi-page documents
• creating and saving spreadsheets
• entering and organising data efficiently
• sorting and filtering data to help make decisions and analyse information
• using Excel to make essential calculations on patterns of e.g. income, sales and expenditure
• converting data into simple charts
• creating simple but effective slide shows
• presenting information on slide shows in an engaging and easily readable way
• using texts and images
• printing out slides
• using notes
• maintain file security.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• identify the key feature of Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• identify what we use Word, Excel and PowerPoint for
• create office type documents including use of templates
• format and lay out documents so they are easy to read and highlight key information
• save and organise files – create a file-management system
• use and manipulate tables
• edit multi-page documents
• create and save spreadsheets
• enter and organise data efficiently
• sort and filter data to help make decisions and analyse information
• use Excel to make essential calculations on patterns of e.g. income, sales and expenditure
• convert data into simple charts
• create simple but effective slide shows
• present information on slide shows in an engaging and easily readable way
• use texts and images
• print out slides
• use notes
• maintain file security.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

This course is for those who have some basic familiarity with Word, Excel and PowerPoint but who need develop their skills and knowledge in the programs to be able to work in an office environment with confidence. If you are a complete beginner in these MS Office programs, then please enrol first on Becoming confident in digital skills: Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

You will learn in a supportive and welcoming environment with an emphasis on your discovering how to do and complete tasks and functions, with guidance from the tutor. You will learn in a step by step manner so you can achieve challenging aims in an enjoyable and productive way. You will have lots of opportunities to practise as well as understand what you are doing and why. Everyone will be encouraged to participate and interact in a way that is best for them, including working in pairs and groups, as well as on your own. You will need to do work outside the classroom and use Google Classroom to help you.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

You will need a pen, some lined A4 paper and a file to keep your work in. Your tutor will provide handouts and a link for Google classroom so you can communicate with classmates and access materials, videos etc. online.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

There are a variety of other courses you could do before, at same time or after this course. These include:
• Becoming confident in digital skills: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (beginner)
• Business administration: how to be an administrator for beginners (with digital skills)
• Business Administration: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access (intermediate-level 2)
• Business administration: how to organise with OneNote (intermediate)
• Business administration: how to organise and manage with OneNote, MS Outlook and OneDrive (intermediate)
• Touch typing and keyboard skills
• Digital skills for the workplace: analysing, handling and presenting data with Excel (intermediate)
• Workplace skills: how to be organised, focused and efficient using MS Outlook and OneDrive (intermediate)
• Digital skills for the workplace: creating newsletters, reports and tables with Word (intermediate)
• Getting job ready: identifying the most in-demand work skills and how you can develop them

Our accredited courses include:
• Essential digital skills for work (Level 1)
• Award in Digital and IT Skills: word-processing, spreadsheets, presentations and databases (intermediate-level 2)

There also many English, maths and office skills courses you can do. Ask your tutor or contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / (telephone temporarily unavailable) for more details. Some of these courses include:
• Business Administration (with digital skills): English communication skills in a business environment (level 2)
• Professional communication skills: how to make your writing clear, concise and organised (level 2)
• Professional communication skills: reading, analysing, and comparing data and text (level 2)
• Professional communication skills: effective verbal communication in the workplace (level 2)
• Professional communication skills: effective written communication in the workplace (level 2)
• Business administration: maths for administrators (level 1-2).