Due to the coronavirus pandemic, everybody is hunkering down in our houses. With this, everybody needs something to be occupied with and keep us off the edge.
Many are finding their own ways to cope with the stress of being confined to our home for an extended period of time.
However, we can still catch some silver linings to these trying times: we have some free time in our hands.
Some make themselves useful and follow some of the latest trends during the pandemic, like emulating whatever is on “Tidying Up with Maria Kondo;” discovering how much elbow grease we have when we try to make the dalgona coffee; or, trying to be a polyglot by learning different languages.
Speaking of acquiring new knowledge and skills, it will be best to use any free time to study online to stay productive and keep our mind occupied.
This is a good chance for companies to enhance their staff’s skills while their employees can use what they learned as newly minted experts for the benefit of the office.
Having said that, a great idea to achieve this is to give office staff to have access to Office Suite Training.
Since everybody is staying in our own home, learning it online is the best option available.
But saying learning Microsoft Office suites training online is a misnomer because this statement can be too vague and broad.
So, we narrow down the options for you to help you decide on the next best step of having access to the MS Office package course.
We also want your Microsoft Office Suite training free from any hassle as there is some caveat you will encounter on this matter.
Now, here are some things to consider when training online for Office Suites:
Table of Contents
1. Who can qualify to undergo MS Suites training
Anyone who wants to learn can avail themselves of the training.
However, students and faculty members always have some degree of preference, particularly the pupils. This is because they will soon join the workforce and understanding Microsoft Office is only logical.
However, any business owner can enroll their staff for any of Microsoft’s any online courses. Individuals can also attend these training courses too.
2. What is in the training
It depends on what type, of course, a company, academic or individuals’ avail, will dictate what will be in the course.
There are some other factors to consider (some will be under the succeeding items).
There is the aspect of whether the topic of course will revolve with either the online or desktop version. Because both are classes of their own, no pun intended.
Also, there are a few nuisances, like MS Publisher is only available for the desktop version.
3. Free vs paid version
Then there is the issue of availing of the free or paid version. This is because training has tiers.
Office 365 A1 is what they call the free version; this is the basic plan.
This is no different from free apps in the app store for our mobile devices; a free version has limited capabilities and updating it with a paid version will give the benefits of additional features.
Moreover, some who offer the same learning package but can only teach as far as Office 2010, bear in mind that the latest MS Office version was in 2019.
As for the paid, this too has its own tiers.
There is Office 365 A3, which includes all the features of A1, plus it gives full access to Office desktop apps, with some additional management and security tools.
Then there the Office 365 A5 that gives all the features rolled into A3, then it added Microsoft’s best-in-class intelligent security management, advanced compliance, and analytics system.
Also, there are those who offer an outright paid training. Here you do not have to deal with the limitations set by the tiered version of the Office 365 training. Moreover, an accredited MS Office 365 partners can provide this.
Here, you have control, and you get to choose only the programs relevant to your business.
4. How long are the training sessions
Another critical aspect of the training is how long will the duration of the training will entail.
Some accredited MS Office 365 partners offer training as long as 95 minutes (about 1 and a half hours). Some as short as 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, there are others that offer an alternative. Some are allowing anyone to learn in their own phase as an option.
This is crucial to consider, as others prefer to learn in their own time, while others can study and absorb everything in just one take.
A grouping or setting into batches of office staff and determining how they can take in new knowledge is necessary to avoid wasting company resources.
5. Certification
Either way, some of the MS Office package courses will be held, all participants will receive their respective certificate.
The certificate will reflect what the version was taught.
Here, consider what type of version (online or desktop-based) or what year of the training material will be base upon to anticipate everything before availing any training.
The segregation of office staff is also pivotal, as some may only need to undergo an Office 365 A1 class for non-IT personnel; as for the IT department, they may need to take either the Office 365 A3 or A5 version.
Or, IT personnel deserve their own sub-divided class, as subordinates may avail themselves Office 365 A3, while their superiors will need to undergo Office 365 A5.
In summary, this is the best opportunity to acquire new skills that could be useful for any office setting.
Studying what is immediately needed by office personnel is an intelligent decision, judging how fast the tech world is evolving.
Only recently, Microsoft revealed they are rolling out some updates and new features for their Microsoft Teams within the year. That is tantamount to a set of new apps. Hence there will be another learning curve in the future, and they deserve their own training sessions.
Author Bio:
Ashley Halcomb is a researcher and a freelance content writer for CloudBanking and Switchconnect. She is an ongoing learner and always curious to learn new things. She uses that curiosity, combined with her experience as a freelance business owner, to write about subjects valuable to merchants on the CloudBanking and Switchconnect blog.
