10 Best Free Online Excel Courses To Advance Your Career
The availability of detailed, Free Excel Courses Online, is the best thing to happen to students and businessmen in recent times.
Microsoft Excel is the World’s most used spreadsheet package. And it is relevant to all industries.
So, whether you’re a student, banker, marketer, agriculturist or even a clergy, you need Excel in your industry. As far as you deal with data entry, organizing and processing, Microsoft Excel is your go-to software.
Because of how relevant Excel is to all industries, everybody needs to have a certain level of Excel knowledge to stay relevant in their field.
But the problem is, very few people have the time to go for Excel classes. And Even those that have the time, do not have the resources to pay for a Comprehensive Excel Class.
That is why I’ve taken the time to select the best free Excel courses you can find online. So, grab your favorite drink and relax, because in the next five minutes, I will show you the best free Excel courses that will propel you to the next level in your career.
You might also be interested in these 10 Free Online Coding Courses You Can Take As A Beginner
What Is Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet package designed by Microsoft to help you deal with all data related projects in your field.
It can be used on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS to handle computation, graphing and programming tasks.
What Are The Common Uses For Excel?
There are a lot of things Microsoft Excel can be used for. In fact, it is believed there is no limit to what you can do with Excel. As people are still discovering new uses for the powerful software.
But here are the most common uses of the Microsoft Excel:
- Mathematical Computations
- Data Entry, Analysis and Interpretation
- Bookkeeping and Accounting
- Financial Analysis
- Charting and Graphing
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Task and Time Management
- Programming etc
How Much Do Excel Experts Earn?
Excel experts are among the biggest earners in the World. Having a comprehensive knowledge of Excel means you can work in any industry.
Excel experts in the United States earn as high $92,600 per year. While the average annual salary is $49,231.
10 Best Free Online Excel Courses
Here are 10 comprehensive free excel courses you can find online. Carefully go through the list and select the one that best suits your career or learning objectives.
1. Excel Skills for Business Specialization (Coursera)
If you have zero knowledge about Microsoft Excel and you wish to become a certified professional, this course is for you.
Offered by one of the top ranking 200 Universities in the World (Macquarie University, Sidney, Australia), this course has the potential to make you an Excel expert in six months.
The instructors – Nicky Bull, Dr. Prashan Karunaratne and Professor Yvonne Breyer, will take you through four stages in this course. Excel Essentials, Intermediate I, Intermediate II, and Advanced are the four learning levels designed to take you from just a beginner to an expert in six months.
At the end of each level, you’ll have access to downloadable workbooks and data sets to help you practice what you learned.
To enroll for the course, click here
2. Useful Excel for Beginners (Udemy)
In this 9 hours course, you will learn everything you need to move from being a beginner to an effective user of Excel.
This course is structured to be very beginner-friendly. Even if you’ve never opened an Excel file before, do not worry.
The instructor will take you from Excel terminologies to the most basic things you can do on Excel. From the foundation of the basic knowledge, you’ll go through advanced practical sessions.
The fact that this course is free does not in any way reduce its quality. This course remains one of the best Excel courses you can see online. The 469,000 plus students who have taken and rated it five stars can testify.
Here are the things you will learn in this course:
- Basics of Excel
- Entering Data
- Formatting
- Editing
- Saving
- Viewing
- Calculations
- Visualizing
- Analyzing
- Tables
- Sharing
3. Everyday Excel Specialization (Coursera)
This course is structured to teach you how to use Excel for your everyday tasks.
Taught by Charlie Nuttelman and offered by the University of Colorado, the course will take you through the fundamental uses of Excel. Whether you’re a complete beginner or an advanced Excel user, you have something to learn from this course.
You will not just learn to navigate the Excel software, you will learn to enter data, process it and present it for management decisions.
You can complete the course in approximately 25 hours. Here are the things you will learn from this course:
- Navigating Excel
- Expression Entry and Common Excel Functions
- More Excel Functions
- Managing Data
- Plotting, Importing Data, and Converting to Other File Types
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4. Excel for Accountants: Mapping Tables (Udemy)
This is an advanced Excel course for Accountants. The focus is on how to automate reporting tasks using a mapping table.
In this course, Jeff Lenning will make you understand the power of mapping tables in task reporting. You will learn to use SUMIFS Function to conditionally sum transactions. You will also learn to translate labels with a mapping table.
The course duration is approximately 30 minutes. It has already been taken by over 92,000 students, and is rated high by the Accounting professionals who took it.
Here are the course contents:
- Course Overview
- Tables
- Conditional Summing
- Mapping Tables
5. Microsoft Excel – Basic Data Visualization In Excel (Udemy)
If you’ve been looking for a free Excel course that will teach you Data Visualization in a simplified way, this course is for you.
Created by a seasoned Analyst, Sean John Thompson, the course will take you through the entire process of making great data visualizations in Excel. Sean John has over 10 years of experience in various top industries including Healthcare, Technology and Finance.
You will learn to clean your data to make it fit for graphing, prepare well-designed graphs in Excel and use VLOOKUPS and Pivot Tables to summarize data.
Additionally, you will learn to design graphs in Excel to look similar to the ones in the World’s most respected publications.
Here are the course modules:
- Introduction
- Data preparation
- Data Graphing
- Special Styles
6. Excel for Everyone: Data Management (edX)
Offered by the University of British Columbia, this course is structured to build on your existing basic Excel knowledge.
It takes an advanced look on how to manage larger datasets, complex data wrangling and modeling.
You will learn to use data reports to make informed personal or management decisions. This includes sales forecasting and automation, error prevention and risk management.
The instructor of this course, Ricardo Trujeque, is a creative business consultant with over 20 years in technology, marketing and educational industries. So believe me when I say this course is power-packed with lots of knowledge and practical experiences.
Here are the things you will learn from this course:
- How to manage multiple worksheets and workbooks
- Analyzing data with datasets and tables
- How to manage data analysis using Pivot Tables, and Pivot Charts
- Implementing What-if Analysis and Decision-Making Tools
- Using Date, Logical, Statistical and Financial Functions
7. Analyzing Data With Excel (edX)
Again, this is an advanced Microsoft Excel course. It looks to build on the fundamental Excel knowledge of using spreadsheets to perform basic data analysis.
You will get an in-depth knowledge on how to use functions for data cleaning and wrangling. You will also learn to make detailed analysis on data using data organization methods like sorting, filtering, and pivot tables.
The fun of the entire process is that the course is completely practical. So it is advisable you make available double screens while learning as you’d be doing a lot of hands-on practices.
Offered by Global Data Analytics company, IBM, you’re assured that this course has all you need to be an authority in data analysis.
Here are the things you should expect to learn:
- The Fundamentals of spreadsheet applications
- How to perform basic spreadsheet tasks
- About the importance of data quality
- How to import file data into Excel
- The fundamentals of analyzing data using a spreadsheet
- How to filter and sort data
- How to clean and prepare data
- How to analyze data using an Excel spreadsheet
8. Microsoft Excel Tutorial for Beginners — Full Course [freeCodeCamp]
freeCodeCamp is one of the best platforms to learn any programming or data related skill online. And since Excel is at the top of the skills required by tech employers, they’ve prepared this detailed Excel course to bridge that important knowledge gap.
The course was created by Shad Sluiter, a computer science professor at Grand Canyon University. Shad has, in the past 20 years, taught different technology related courses to students of different grades.
You will be creating real world projects on payroll, gradebook, sales database, car inventory etc. this is undoubtedly one of the best free online excel courses out there.
In this course, you will learn to:
- Enter data
- Navigate through a spreadsheet
- Create formulas to solve problems
- Create charts and graphs
- Understand relative vs absolute references
- Import and export data
- Implement VLOOKUP
- Use pivot tables
- Split and concatenate text
9. Excel for Windows Training (Microsoft)
What is better than learning to use a tool from its original creator?
In this detailed course, Microsoft takes you through the comprehensive training session on how to navigate the Excel platform.
From the basics to advanced level, you will learn how to use Excel for any data-related projects you want to carry out.
There are templates for Excel formula and Pivot Table. You’ll also get datasets and be given projects to work on. These projects will give you practical exposure on how to use the software to make complex personal, business and management decisions.
10. Free Online Excel Training (Excel Exposure)
Excel Exposure is a platform completely dedicated to teaching Microsoft Excel. The platform is focused on providing you with all the information you need to be successful in your job, personal business or college career.
This is the most complete Excel tutorial I have come across. The course covers every topic on Excel, from the basics to the advanced levels.
No matter the level of mastery you’ve attained in Excel, there are one or two new things you will learn from this course.
Apart from the in-depth tutorial videos, there are non-video materials on the major topics. You will also learn tricks and quick tips to make your work faster and more effective.
Furthermore, there is an introductory lesson on Microsoft Power BI and Financial Modeling. Believe me, when you are done with this course, you will be a walking Excel Encyclopedia.
To enroll in the course, click here.
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Conclusion
The need for Microsoft Excel in the workspace can’t be over-emphasized. Given the importance of the program, making out time to learn it will be a step in the right direction for your career success.
These free online excel courses will serve as detailed guides for you. All you need to do is take one that addresses your personal, business or corporate career needs.
Online Excel Courses – FAQs
As a busy professional, the fastest way to learn Excel is to master the basics. Once you’ve mastered the basics, it would be easier for you to assimilate advanced courses.
It is also important that you know that the easiest way to learn is by practice. Most of the online Excel courses provided in this article have hands-on projects you can work on. Do not neglect them, thinking you’ve grabbed the theoretical knowledge.
You’d learn faster when you do actual projects on Excel.
As a certified Excel expert, you can work in almost every sector. But these are the most defined job careers you can pursue:
Financial Analyst
Retail Manager
Cost Estimator
Administrative Assistant
Business Analyst
Data Analyst etc.
It is easy to learn the basics of Excel. But attaining mastery in Excel can be really challenging.
The easiest way to learn Excel is to get comfortable with the basics. With that, you can easily take extra courses to get better. The online courses outlined in this article will go a long way to helping you learn Excel.
Being at the core of almost every industry’s data processing needs, Excel is and will remain relevant in the years to come.
Even more specific data processing software programs like Power BI have their roots from Excel.
Yes, there are other spreadsheet packages available. Some of them are:
Google Sheets
Zoho Sheet
Quip
Smartsheet etc.
