Excel Training

Spreadsheet Training

Classroom-style training		Tutorial-style training
There are many organisations offering many different levels of training in Excel and associated products. For those unfamiliar with Excel a course in basic functionality could be useful. However, more advanced training courses are probably of limited value. In fact the worst spreadsheets tend to be those created by people with more than basic knowledge of the product. Most seem Hell-bent on using the stuff they've learned whether it helps or not. It is better to have no validation than the kind of rigid, obstructive validation found in the spreadsheets of those who have covered validation in a training course. Training in Excel beyond a basic level, while probably interesting and enjoyable for the individual, appears to serve no practical purpose and adds little, if any, value to a business.	"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" - never more true than with Excel	This is a totally different and much more practical approach to training, being much more akin to apprenticeship than the classroom, group therapy rather than coaching. The group reviews one or more spreadsheets that are currently in use at the organisation. With the trainer, they discuss these spreadsheets, what they are meant to achieve, what they do achieve, why they may not achieve all that is expected of them, problems, difficulties and limitations with them, etc. in a very open forum. The trainer then explains and demonstrates possible solutions so that the group can see exactly what is being done and how what they are being taught can be applied in the real world. The result is that what is taught has a much greater chance of being learned, which is not often the case with abstract classroom-style training.