NECS is very proud to provide you with free access to IT Skills Pathway; online training and assessment for Microsoft Office products, from basic through to advanced levels. It has been developed to provide an officially recognised route of learning for the whole workforce and includes “just in time” training via a searchable resource tool.

For more information about IT Skills Pathway please click here.

Microsoft Word Resources
Download the Word 2010 specialist user guide here

Download the Word 2010 expert user guide here

Download the Word 2010 quick reference guide here

Microsoft Word Level 1
If you are looking to start completely from scratch in Word or recap the basics, this is the right course for you. It will cover key features such as creating, editing, saving and printing documents. It will explore how to view documents in different ways, how to correct spelling and grammatical errors as well as jazzing things up with pictures, ClipArt and WordArt. It will also cover how to create and modify lists as well as presenting information in columns and tables.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Word Level 2
This course is for those who want to go beyond the basics, using more functionality and even customising Word so you can do more. For example, the course explains how to create and modify your own Styles to completely control text throughout your documents.

It will explore how to create Charts, modify pictures, and create impressive SmartArt graphics. It will also cover how to understand and use the Quick Parts tool for inserting reusable content in any document.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Word Level 3
Learn things you never knew Word could do in Microsoft Word Level 3. Get to grips with Track Changes, Compare Documents and insert Forms controls.

Explore how to insert an Index, Table of Contents, Table of Figures, Bookmarks, Hyperlinks, Cross-References, Footnotes and Endnotes. It will also cover how to make a document more secure by removing personal information and set passwords.

Please contact us for more information about this course.

All things mail merge
The title says it all; this specialised course focuses on how to get the best from the Mail Merge function in Microsoft Word 2010. Don’t spend time typing or pasting in names, addresses, greetings lines, phone numbers etc. Get Mail Merge to do all that for you. The course covers how to create a main document with placeholders for your mail merge information.

This could be an envelope with a return address, labels for printing, a letter or an email message. Guidance will be given on how to set up a mailing list with all the information your document needs.

You will examine various formats such as an Excel Spreadsheet, Outlook Contact list or a simple Word Data file. Finally, you will produce the merged document – the letter, email, labels, or envelopes—personalised for different people on the mailing list.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Mastering long documents
Although having experience with using Word 2010, some feel that they would like to be able to do more. Therefore, this course aims to bridge that knowledge gap and permanently improve the way Word is used. An essential principle emphasised is to use Styles rather than formatting headings manually.

Lesser known features covered on this course include; inserting a table of contents, tables of figures, using section breaks, inserting an Index, managing updates with track changes, inserting comments  and more.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Excel Resources
Download the Excel 2010 specialist user guide here

Download the Excel 2010 expert user guide here

Download the Excel 2010 quick reference guide here

Microsoft Excel Level 1
If you are completely new to the system or just looking for a refresher on the basics of Excel, this is for you.

This course covers key features such as creating spreadsheets, adding and removing worksheets, formatting cells, pasting techniques and working with charts.  It will look at some of the basic functions such as SUM and AVERAGE and how to use the tools within Excel to easily copy functions and formulae to other cells in a list.  It will also look at some of the best recommended ways of sorting data and how to filter and print worksheets.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Excel Level 2
If you want to know some of the more advanced functions and features of the system, this is for you.

You will be introduced to the quick access toolbar, absolute referencing, named ranges, the IF function along with using Dates and calculating time passed between dates.  Times and formatting of times will be shown and some more advanced features such as removing duplicates, formatting as a table and the more advanced side of conditional formatting.  Sparklines, charts and data validation (e.g. in cell dropdown boxes) will also be covered in this course.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Excel Level 3
This course is for those “I wonder if Excel can…” questions about logical, summarising or mathematical functions.

It will look at creation of Macros, applying advanced conditional formatting, data validation criteria, sharing, protecting and merging workbooks. You will be shown how to use the more advanced side of formulae – including tracing precedents and dependants and importing/exporting data.

Please contact us for more information about this course

Power of the Pivot Table
The title says it all; this specialised course focuses on how to get the best from pivot tables and pivot charts in Excel. The course starts with an introduction to pivot tables and what they can be used for, how to manipulate and present your data in different ways and finishes with creating your own dashboard.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft PowerPoint Resources
Download the PowerPoint 2010 specialist user guide here

Download the PowerPoint 2010 quick reference guide here

Microsoft PowerPoint Level 1
This course has been designed to help you familiarise yourself with the main features in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. It will cover the basics including how to start PowerPoint and add slides to  create basic presentations, how to navigate PowerPoint using the ribbon and saving documents, editing text and formatting tools, adding graphical objects such as shapes and SmartArt, adding animation and presenting your presentation

This course is aimed primarily at people who haven’t used PowerPoint in the past or those who have used PowerPoint to create simple presentations or use presentations created by others.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft PowerPoint Level 2
This course has been designed to examine how to create and manage presentations using a variety of core and intermediate features.

This course builds upon the topics outlined in the level one course and covers some of the more advanced design features when working with Shapes and Smart Masters, using themes and Editing Smart Masters to create professional presentations with a unified look and feel, adding sections to a presentation and creating customized presentations form a slide deck allowing the same presentation to be customized to different audiences.  We also take a look at some of the more advanced transition and animation effects and how to add narration and create self presenting presentations that can run in kiosk mode or even be distributed as a video file.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Outlook Resources

Download the Outlook 2010 specialist user guide here

Download the Outlook 2010 quick reference guide here

Microsoft Outlook Level 1

This Microsoft Outlook level 1 course is an introductory course, either for those who haven’t used Outlook before or those who have used it i it’s most basic form.

The course will cover key features including how to navigate round Outlook using the ribbon and folder list, working with emails (creating, formatting, sending and replying). It will explore functionality including working with attachments and signatures and organising your emails.

It will go on to cover creating and searching for contacts and using the calendar to create appointments and schedule meetings.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Outlook Level 2

This Microsoft Outlook level 2 course is to help familiarise yourself with the more advanced features of Microsoft Outlook  including mail, calendar, contacts, tasks  notes, distribution lists, groups and mailbox maintenance.

The course will covers useful functionality including customising message options and formats, advanced mail features such as using voting buttons and setting mailbox permissions. Mailbox management is a key feature of this course, you will discover the different ways you can organise your messages including search folders and conditional formatting and see the powerful search functionality Outlook has to offer. It will explore how to work efficiently in the calendar and how to manage contacts and contact groups.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft OneNote Resources
Download the OneNote 2010 specialist user guide here

Download the OneNote 2010 quick reference guide here

Microsoft OneNote
The Microsoft OneNote 2010 course covers the majority of functionality within OneNote.

The course will cover key features such as creating and working with notebooks and their different components and will focus on the ability to capture various types of media from text, to images and videos. It will explore the use of tags  and tag reports to help organise and make your notes more useful and this will lead into using OneNote’s powerful search capabilities to find what you’re looking for quickly. It will also cover shared notebooks, version control and integration with other Microsoft applications.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled

Microsoft Project Resources
Download the Project 2010 manual here

 

Microsoft Project
This one-day course gives delegates a sound footing in the world of Microsoft Project 2010 and is aimed at those who wish to more formally plan, monitor and report on their projects.

Whilst not exhaustive, this course does equip delegates with the skills and knowledge to fully utilise the main functionality within this software.

Key modules include Planning, Resourcing, Reporting, Tracking and Baselining.

Upcoming events

There are currently no courses scheduled