8 Best Microsoft Excel Courses for IT Professionals to Learn Online in 2024
A collection of best online courses to learn Microsoft Excel for both beginners and experienced IT professionals from Udemy, Coursera, and Pluralsight.
Hello guys, If you want to become a Data Analyst and learning Microsoft Excel or want to learn Excel in 2024 and looking for the best online courses then you have come to the right place. In the past, I have shared some advanced Excel courses to learn things like VBA and Macros and in this article, I am going to share more all-around Excel courses to learn Microsoft Excel in depth.
These are the best MS Excel courses from sites like Udemy, Pluralsight, and Coursera, and thousands of developers have joined these courses to learn this useful skill and you can do the same.
But you may be thinking Why learn Excel in 2024? Is it Excel worth learning in 2024? Does it make sense ??
“Excel?? Come on, why not a blockchain? NFT, or Web3!” (don’t you worry 😉)
I’ll admit, at first I didn’t think it was really necessary to have an article about the best online courses to learn Excel. But I was wrong.
It’s much more powerful than I realized.
I had this thought… Isn’t it funny how basically every app (especially B2B apps) has an “export to excel / csv” button… right, why is that??…
Probably because Excel is still used by ~750 MILLION people 🤯. And it’s still growing even though it first launched in 1987.
Combine that with the fact Excel has its own built-in programming language (VBA) and it’s clear that Excel is a useful tool for every developer to have in their toolbox.
Microsoft Excel is one of the most essential tools for IT professionals. It’s not only the most common spreadsheet tool but also offers powerful charting and analytical capability.
It’s not just useful for Programmers and Support professionals but equally useful for other people working in IT and computers science jobs like Business Analysts (BAs), Quality Analysts (QAs), and Project Managers.
If you want a tool that can compare data, create charts, do data analysis, and allow you to create a powerful template for data processing then learn Excel. Because of all these reasons, I think Excel is still worth learning in 2024 and beyond.
I know many of you already know Microsoft Excel but the problem is that most people only know a couple of Excel functionality and miss out on many interesting things which can help you in your day-to-day job.
For example, you can use VLOOKUP to find an item that is present in one list but not on others. Similarly, you can find duplicate elements in a list of names and even remove duplicates. It’s also a very good tool to generate automatic SQL queries based upon a template.
If you are convinced that Microsoft Excel is a great tool and learning it can improve your productivity as an IT professional then it’s the right time to delve into some useful resources to learn and master Microsoft Excel.
In this article, I am going to share some of the best courses to learn Excel in depth. The list contains both free excel courses, and paid resources and is useful for IT professionals like programmers, software engineers, business analysts, quality analysts, and project managers.
Microsoft Office is everywhere, installed on over 750 million computers, but most users only know how to set up a basic table or maybe even do a few formulas here and there. Knowing the basics of Excel 2024 can help make you a more well-rounded professional.
It’s not just useful for programmers and IT professionals but also for people working as Executive Assistant Office Clerk, Auditor, Accountant, Business Analyst, Financial Analyst, Credit Counselor, Sales Representative, Sales Manager, Financial Manager, Investment Banker, Real Estate Agent, Market Research Analyst, Financial Advisor, Business Operations Manager, and Entrepreneurs
8 Best Online Courses to learn Microsoft Excel for Beginners and Experienced IT Professionals
As I said, Microsoft Excel is a very useful tool for data analysis, reconciliation, and automation. I have used Excel to analyze data, generate SQL queries using some basic Excel functions and their formula copy feature.
Being a Java developer Excel has helped a lot in analyzing data, solving problems, and doing production support. I strongly believe that every programmer should know basic things about Excel.
1. Microsoft Excel — Excel from Beginner to Advanced
This is one of the best and most comprehensive courses to learn Microsoft Excel. It’s just one course but covers almost every Microsoft Excel version I have used so far including Microsoft Excel 2010, Excel 2013, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, and Office 365 as well.
The best thing about this course is the logical progression of topics and the part about Macro and VBA was new for me. Excel is a really powerful tool and it is worth knowing all of its aspects. Kyle did a good job of explaining them.
Here are the key things you will learn in this course:
- Basics of Microsoft Excel
- How to use the most common Excel functions used in the Office
- How to Maintain large sets of Excel data in a list or table
- How to use dynamic formulas with IF, VLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH functions
- How to use the full power of Microsoft Excel by automating your day to day tasks through Macros and VBA
- How to create dynamic reports by mastering one of the most popular tools, PivotTables
Instructor Kyle Pew is a Microsoft Certified trainer and very knowledge and that shows in his teaching style. This course is very useful for both beginners and experienced people who want to learn Microsoft Excel for common tasks.
Kyle is also a very responsive trainer and if you have any doubt you can connect with him in QnA and he almost always responds with accurate answers.
Here is the link to join this best Excel course — Microsoft Excel — Excel from Beginner to Advanced
Talking about social proof, this is one of the most popular courses to learn Microsoft Excel in Udemy, and more than 464,832 students enrolled in this course. It also has on average 4.6 ratings from close to 139,359 participants, which is enormous proof of the quality of this course.
2. Excel Skills for Business Specialization Certificate [Coursera]
You would be surprised that there is also a Microsoft Excel certification you can take on Coursera and showcase the world about your Microsoft Excel skills. This specialization is intended for anyone who seeks to develop one of the most critical and fundamental digital skills today.
This specialization also offers you a certification. When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you’ll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.
There are 4 Courses in this Specialization
1. Excel Skills for Business: Essentials
2. Excel Skills for Business: Intermediate I
3. Excel Skills for Business: Intermediate II
4. Excel Skills for Business: Advanced
Like other Coursera courses, these are also free-to-audit, which means you can take them for free but you need to pay a small amount if you need a certification. If you need a certificate to share on social media like LinkedIn or on your resume for potential employers, this is a great specialization to join.
Here is the link to join this certification — -Excel Skills for Business Specialization Certificate
And, if you find Coursera courses and certifications useful then you should also join the Coursera Plus, a subscription plan from Coursera which provides you unlimited access to their most popular courses, specialization, professional certificate, and guided projects. It cost around $399/year but its complete worth your money as you get unlimited certificates
3. Excel 2019 Essentials By Bill Kellerman [Pluralsight]
If you have a Pluralsight membership and looking for a great course to learn Microsoft Excel in Pluralsight then you will love this course. This course Excel 2019 essential is created by Bill Kulterman to teach you the basics of Excel 2019 and how to work with Excel 2019.
Here are the main things you will learn in this course:
1. how to work with the Ribbon interface and Backstage View
2. how to work with worksheets, cells, columns, and rows.
3. how to use formatting and Auto options
After completing this course, you will have the skills and knowledge of Excel 2019 needed to begin creating your own spreadsheets and begin preparation for the Microsoft Office exams.
Here is the link to join this Excel course — Excel 2019 Essentials
Btw, you would need a Pluralsight membership to join this course which costs $29 per month or $299 per year (14% discount). Alternatively, you can also take their 10-day-free-trail to access this course for FREE.
4. Microsoft Excel — Advanced Excel Formulas & Functions
This is an advanced online course to learn Microsoft Excel for Data Analysis. This course is created by Chris Dutton, one of my favorite instructors on Udemy and an Excel expert, this course will teach you everything you need to know about Microsoft Excel for Data Analysis.
Here are the main things you will learn in this course:
1. How to think like Excel, and write powerful and dynamic Excel formulas from scratch.
2. How to automate, streamline, and completely revolutionize your workflow with Excel.
3. Useful tips, tools, and case studies that you won’t find in ANY other course.
4. How to build Excel formulas to analyze dates, text fields, values, and arrays.
The course is well organized, and the topics cover all the necessary functions, and if one has the willingness to learn deeper after the course all the other alternative functions will be quite easy to understand and apply.
The explanations by Chris were comprehensible and entertaining along with the examples, so you will learn automatically, I mean the process itself is so good that success just becomes a side effect.
Overall, one of the most advanced courses to learn useful functions and features of Microsoft Excel.
Here is the link to join this course — Microsoft Excel — Advanced Excel Formulas & Functions
You will also get lifetime access to project files, quizzes, homework exercises, and 1-on-1 expert support which is very very useful. Talking about social proof, this course is trusted by more than 161,266 students with on average 4.6 ratings from close to 31,820 participants.
5. The Ultimate Excel Programmer Course
So far we have seen a beginner course on Microsoft Excel, an advanced course on Excel, and now is the time to see this ultimate Excel course for programmers. Crate by Daniel Strong this course is for anyone who wants to learn Automation secrets in Excel VBA.
Here are the main things you will learn in this course:
1. How to automate and customize data entry forms.
2. How to master the CELLS and RANGE objects in multiple scenarios
3. How to customize your VBA Editor and Understand all the Toolbars and options.
4. How to Record, Modify or Write Macros from scratch
5. How to use IF-THEN statements and conquer all the Logical Operators
7. How to Debug and Troubleshoot code.
8. How to Put Excel ON AUTOPILOT.
The course is equally useful for complete newbies and/or students looking for a refresher or Reference tool, to pick and choose relevant lessons for their projects.
Here is the link to join this course — The Ultimate Excel Programmer Course
No prior programming knowledge is needed, but If you have some knowledge of Microsoft Excel then this is the perfect course to complement your skills and get them up to a level with some practice.
Talking about the social proof, this course is trusted by more than 98,014 students, and it has on average 4.4 ratings from close to 12,693 participants. It’s truly a useful course for anyone who wants to learn Excel in and out.
6. Microsoft Excel 2016 Beginners & Intermediate Excel Training
This is another great Udemy course to learn Microsoft Excel from scratch. This course uses Microsoft Excel 2016 which is not the latest version but still, the most popular Excel version, and the basics haven’t changed much.
Created by 365 Careers, this is one of the best Excel courses available on Udemy, it includes everything you’ll need. We will start from the very basics and then gradually build a solid foundation that will serve you well throughout your career.
Here are some of the USP of this course:
- High quality of production — HD video and animated slides
- Knowledgeable instructor (experience in Big 4 Accounting + Commercial Finance)
- Downloadable materials: The course comes with a complete set of downloadable materials (handouts, Excel files, etc.)
- Extensive Case Studies that will help you reinforce everything that you’ve learned
- Excellent support: If you don’t understand a concept or you simply want to drop us a line, you’ll receive an answer within 24 hours
This course is suitable for people without any previous experience in Excel. You will learn from the very basics and will gradually move on to some of the more advanced features, such as lookup functions, functions with conditions, goal seeks, pivot tables, custom formatting, Excel 2016 charts, and other tools that are often used for the purposes of Financial Modeling.
Here is the link to join this course — Microsoft Excel 2016 Beginners & Intermediate Excel Training
7. Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024
This is another awesome Excel course for beginners from Udemy. This Microsoft Excel class will make you a master of Microsoft Excel by carefully designed curriculum teaching you only the most used functionalities of Excel in a business environment.
This is a complete and concise tutorial on MS Excel which can be completed within 6 hours. We know that your time is important and hence we have created this fast-paced course without wasting time on irrelevant Excel operations.
Here are the key skills which you will learn in this course:
- Mathematical Functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, RAND, MIN & MAX, SUMPRODUCT.
- Textual Formulas such as TRIM, CONCATENATE, SUBSTITUTE, UPPER & LOWER, LENGTH, LEFT, RIGHT & MID
- Logical Formulas such as AND & OR, IF, COUNTIF, SUMIF
- Date-time (Temporal) Formulas such as TODAY & NOW, DAY, MONTH & YEAR, DATEDIF & DAYS
- Lookup Formulas such as VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH
- Data Tools — This lecture covers Data operating tools such as Data Sorting and Filtering, Data validation, Removing duplicates, Importing Data (Text-to-columns)
- Formatting data and tables like coloring, changing font, alignments, and table formatting options such as adding borders, having highlighted table headers, banded rows, etc.
- Pivot Tables, Charts as, Bar/ Column chart, Line Chart, Scatter Plot, Pie & Doughnut charts, Statistical Chart — Histogram, Waterfall, Sparklines
- Macros such as recording a Macro, running a Macro, and creating a button to run a Macro.
Either you’re new to Excel, or you’ve played around with it but want to get more comfortable with Excel’s advanced features. Either way, this course will be great for you.
Here is the link to join this best Excel course — Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024
8. The Excel Bootcamp: Zero to Mastery [ZTM Academy]
This is another amazing, highly engaging, and up-to-date course to learn Microsoft Excel in 2024. This course is created by ZTM Academy and Andrei Negaoie and its exclusive for ZTM members.
This course will teach you Excel from scratch. And even if you already know some Excel, you’ll learn advanced topics like data analysis & modeling, pivot tables, and VBA.
This 14+ hours long full HD course will teach you everything about Excel you need to learn to become a top 10% Excel expert. It also comes with 13+ bonus exercises, projects & resources, access to the exclusive ZTM community and you will also gain a Certificate of Completion.
Here is the link to join this course — The Excel Bootcamp: Zero to Mastery
Who is this Excel course for? This Excel course is for both beginner and advanced professionals looking to learn and master Excel.
Any IT professionals like Developers, Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, Business Analysts, Product Managers, Sales/Marketers, and anyone who uses data to make business decisions can join this course to learn Excel.
This course is also great for anyone who wants to work in the fields of data analysis and/or data science and Programmers who want to accelerate their career by adding data science & data analysis skills to their toolkit.
Btw, you would need a ZTM membership to watch this course which costs around $39 per month but also provides access to many super engaging and useful courses. You can also use my code FRIENDS10 to get a 10% discount on any subscription you choose.
That’s all about some of the best online courses to learn Microsoft Excel in 2024. Microsoft Excel is one of the most important tools for any IT professional.
As I have said, an average IT professional barely scratches the surface when it comes to using Microsoft Excel, and learning it can not only make you more productive in your analysis and work but also make you a more all-rounded developer.
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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find these courses useful for learning Microsoft Excel then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.
P. S. — If you are keen to learn Microsoft Excel but looking for free online training courses to start with then you can also check out this Useful Excel for Beginners on Udemy. It’s completely free and trusted by more than 283,000 students. It has more than 9.5 hours of content which is like any other paid course.
