IT Training
Why instructor-led training still matters for Excel, Power BI and SQL
Videos and AI can show your team how to get an answer from Excel, Power BI or SQL. They cannot show whether the answer is right. Why instructor-led training still matters for data skills, and how PTR runs it.
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For most teams, yes. Instructor-led training gives people the grounding to check what videos and AI tools produce, because questions are answered live, the content can be shaped around their own data, and an experienced person sees mistakes the learner cannot. That matters most in Excel, Power BI and SQL, where an error can look perfectly tidy.
Between 25 September and 2 October 2020, 15,841 positive Covid-19 cases in England were left out of the daily reported figures. Public Health England put it down to a file size problem. The reporting had been collected in an older Excel file format, which could only hold so much, and once it filled, further cases were simply not added.
Nobody in that chain was careless with the maths. The formulas were fine. What nobody had was a clear picture of the limits of the tool they were relying on, which is the kind of thing a person tends to learn in the first hour of a good course and the first month of a bad mistake.
That gap is the case for instructor-led training. Learning to drive is a fair comparison. You can read the Highway Code and watch plenty of videos, but most people still want an instructor beside them with a second set of pedals.
Is instructor-led training better than self-teaching for Excel, Power BI and SQL?
Self-teaching has a natural shape. Someone needs a number by Friday, finds a video that gets them there, and moves on. They learn one route to one answer. They do not learn why it works, what it quietly assumes, or what to do when the data changes shape next month.
Spreadsheet research suggests this matters. Ray Panko of the University of Hawaii has spent years reviewing audits of real spreadsheets. His summaries put the share containing significant errors at somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent, although the studies define "significant" differently and the samples vary.
Errors are easy to make and hard to see, and the person who built the workbook is the least likely to spot them. Power BI and SQL carry the same risk, with more power behind it. A report built on a faulty model, or a query that joins two tables the wrong way, can repeat the same mistake across thousands of rows and look perfectly tidy while it does so.
Can AI replace Excel, Power BI and SQL training?
AI tools can now draft an Excel formula, a DAX measure or a SQL query in seconds, and PTR uses them ourselves. For someone who already knows the basics, that saves real time.
The difficulty is review. A query that runs is not necessarily a query that is right. A join that matches each customer to several records will return a result without complaint, and every sales total built on it will be too high. Spotting that needs someone who knows how joins behave, and that is precisely the skill a person does not have if the AI has always done it for them.
So the more your team relies on AI for data tasks, the more they need the underlying skill to check it. Training stops being an alternative to AI and becomes the thing that makes AI safe to use.
What does an instructor-led course add?
Questions answered on the spot
The dual controls again. When a delegate gets stuck, or the instructor sees someone heading for a wall, it is dealt with there and then, and the rest of the room often learns from the question they would not have thought to ask. A recorded video cannot do that. Neither can a chat window that confidently answers the wrong question.
Delegates on PTR courses describe it in similar terms. One Excel Level 1 delegate, a member of support staff, wrote: "Very clear and informative instructor. Relaxed atmosphere and great course content."
Training built around your data and your difficulties
PTR courses are delivered at our Wokingham training room, onsite at your offices, or virtually, and they can be tailored. Delegates can tell us about the particular things they struggle with so that the day focuses on them. For Power BI we also run blended workshops that use your own data, which tends to be where the learning turns into working reports.
A learning path, not a one-off day
Skills build in stages, and each course here has a next step. Excel runs from Level 1 through Level 2 to Level 3. SQL for Data Analysts runs from Basic through Intermediate to Advanced. Power BI has Introduction to DAX and Introduction to Power Query alongside the main course. People can start where they are, and managers can see where the team goes next.
Which instructor-led courses does PTR run for Excel, Power BI and SQL?
These are the courses behind this article, with what each one is for.
Microsoft Office Excel Level 1 (1 day). For people who need a foundation in creating and developing worksheets: formulas and functions, editing, formatting, printing and managing larger workbooks. ptr.co.uk/microsoft-office-excel-level-1
Microsoft Office Excel Level 2 (1 day). For people with foundation Excel skills who want to analyse data further: advanced formulas, logical and lookup functions, tables, charts, PivotTables, slicers and PivotCharts. Level 1, or equivalent knowledge, is recommended. ptr.co.uk/microsoft-office-excel-level-2
Microsoft Office Excel Level 3 (1 day). For experienced users who want to automate worksheets, audit workbooks to prevent errors, share data, and import, export and analyse it. Level 1 and Level 2, or equivalent knowledge, are expected. ptr.co.uk/microsoft-office-excel-level-3
Introduction to Power BI (3 days). Suitable for complete beginners as well as BI developers and business analysts. Covers loading and cleaning data with Power Query, building a data model with DAX measures, visuals and dashboards, and publishing to PowerBI.com. ptr.co.uk/analytics-training/powerbi-courses/introduction-to-power-bi
SQL For Data Analysts - Basic (1 day). For anyone who wants to ask questions of their data: querying, filtering, sorting, joining tables, cleansing with SQL functions and summarising. ptr.co.uk/sql-data-analysts-basic
SQL For Data Analysts - Intermediate (1 day). Follows Basic, with more demanding cleansing, manipulation and filtering of large data sets to prepare data for reporting tools and dashboards. ptr.co.uk/sql-data-analysts-intermediate
SQL For Data Analysts - Advanced (1 day). For solving complex data transformation challenges: business metrics with SQL functions and the CASE statement, modular code with views, stored procedures, temporary tables and CTEs, managing data access security, and working with Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Fabric. The Basic and Intermediate courses, or equivalent knowledge, are expected. ptr.co.uk/sql-data-analysts-advanced
How these skills connect to Microsoft Fabric
Power BI is part of Microsoft Fabric, and Fabric is where we build most of our data platform work for clients. Analysts who can already model data in Power BI and write sound SQL are in a far better position to work with Fabric warehouses, lakehouses and shared semantic models. Training in these three tools is the practical first step towards using that platform well, and towards using AI on top of it with confidence.
How to choose a training provider for data skills
When you compare providers, ask who will be in the room, whether the course can be shaped around your own data, and what happens after the day. PTR is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Azure and for Data and AI, and we build reporting and data platforms as well as teach them, which keeps the examples close to real work.
If you are weighing training against self-study or AI for a team, tell us who the people are and what they do with data. We will suggest the right course and the order to take them in. Contact PTR for dates and pricing at ptr.co.uk.
Frequently asked questions
Is instructor-led training better than online courses?
Online courses are useful for reference and for practising. An instructor adds live answers, content tailored to your own data, and someone who can see a mistake the learner cannot. That matters most where errors are hard to see, such as formulas, data models and joins.
Can AI replace Excel training?
AI can draft a formula or a query quickly. It cannot give a person the ability to judge whether the result is right, and that judgement is what training builds.
How long does it take to learn SQL for data analysis?
PTR's SQL For Data Analysts - Basic is a one-day course covering querying, filtering, sorting, joining tables and summarising data, and Intermediate adds a further day on cleansing and transformation. How quickly someone becomes confident after that depends on how much they use SQL day to day.
Can PTR run these courses at our offices?
Yes. Courses run at our Wokingham training room, onsite or virtually, and can be tailored to your team. Contact PTR for dates and pricing.
MD
Mandy Doward
Managing Director
PTR’s owner and Managing Director is a Microsoft certified Business Intelligence (BI) Consultant, with over 35 years of experience working with data analytics and BI.
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