Learning · Skill
Spreadsheets (Excel & Google Sheets)
Organising, cleaning and summarising information in rows and columns, with formulas, sorting, filters and simple charts.
Common in data and reporting, administration and virtual assistance, and operations roles.
Is this actually your gap?
If you already keep trackers, reconcile figures or build reports in Excel or Google Sheets at work, you probably don’t need a beginner course. The skill may just be missing from your CV or Profile, and that is a proof gap, not a skill gap.
Missing a keyword on your CV doesn’t mean you need a course. This page can’t tell which one you have. Only you know what you’ve done.
Step 1
Practise
Start by doing. Practice shows you what you can already do, and what’s actually missing. Practice is not work experience.
World Bank
Practice project
Nigeria indicators (Excel download)
You finish with something you can show.
- Type
- Dataset
- Access
- Free
- Certificate
- No certificate involved
- Checked
Download the data, clean it, and write a one-page summary with a chart. Credit the World Bank as the source.
Open on data.worldbank.org (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
Step 2
Learn
Use a course for the parts practice showed you’re missing. Finishing a course shows what you studied. It doesn’t show that you’ve used the skill at work.
LearnFree
Excel: Foundations
- Type
- Tutorial series
- Access
- Free
- Certificate
- Certificate not verified
- Checked
LearnFree
Google Sheets
- Type
- Tutorial series
- Access
- Free
- Certificate
- Certificate not verified
- Checked
Step 3 · Optional
Credential
Optional. Most roles judge spreadsheet skill by what you can show, not by a certificate.
Microsoft
Microsoft Office Specialist: Excel Associate (Office 2019), exam MO-200
- Type
- Certification exam
- Access
- Paid / Subscription
- Certificate
- Paid certificate/exam — Proctored exam. Price depends on your country.
- Account
- You’ll need an account on learn.microsoft.com
- Checked
This exam covers Office 2019.
Open on learn.microsoft.com (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
When you’ve practised
Practice and courses aren’t work experience. When you’ve used the skill for a real organisation, that work can become experience.