Overview
Master Advanced Excel for Smarter Data Decisions
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Across all levels of government, data is no longer optional — it’s mission critical. As the federal government charts a digital future via its Data and Digital Government Strategy, agencies are expected to become more data-driven, efficient and transparent. Yet today, 70% of APS agencies report critical data skills shortages, particularly in areas like data analysis, transformation, and report generation.
Meanwhile, with budgets under scrutiny and citizens demanding accountability, manual errors and delays in data handling can have real consequences: misinformed policy, poor service delivery, or reputational risk. Legacy systems, siloed datasets, and limited analytical capability further magnify those dangers.
This course is built for people who are already comfortable in Excel—but who want more. You’ll explore advanced features and functionalities that let you become far more efficient, accurate, and insightful. We’ll dive into data cleaning and transformation, conditional formatting and logic, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivot tables, pivot charts with slicers, and automation of routine tasks.
By the end, you’ll be able to perform complex calculations quickly and reliably and present your findings in reports that drive clarity and action. In a government setting, these skills directly support evidence-based decision-making, improved accountability, and operational efficiency.
Whether you’re an analyst, auditor, project manager, procurement officer or finance lead within public agencies, this course will give you the tools to level up your Excel proficiency—and help your agency meet its data ambitions.
Take the step now. Harness the power of Excel to transform data into decisions—and be the data champion your organisation needs.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Build upon your base knowledge of Excel and dive deeper into some of the more advanced functionality in Microsoft Excel.
Use conditional formatting and the IF function to identify trends and anomalies and perform conditional logic.
Discover the most efficient and effective ways to clean and transform your data.
Use VLOOKUP to link and categorise data
Analyse data and create dashboards using pivot tables, pivot charts and slicers.
Online Training
Excel Intermediate for Government
Session details
- Enhance Data Management: Effectively manage and analyse large amounts of data by leveraging advanced Excel features like sorting, filtering, and pivot tables. This will enable you to make sense of complex data sets quickly and efficiently.
- Improve Efficiency: Understand how to automate routine tasks and perform complex calculations quickly and accurately. By eliminating manual data entry, you will have more time for strategic thinking, which will improve productivity.
- Enhance Decision-Making: Learn how to use Excel’s powerful tools for data analysis, visualisation, and reporting. With clear and concise reports, you will be able to communicate your findings more effectively and make informed decisions that drive results.
Facilitated by:
Nicky Bull
Some familiarity with topic is recommended
Key Sessions
9:00 am Welcome and Introduction
9:15 am Clean and Transform Data with Text and Date Functions
- Calculations for joining and splitting text
- Changing case and removing unwanted characters
- Performing calculations with dates
10:00 am Conditional Formatting
- Identifying trends, thresholds, anomalies, and specific
ranges with conditional formatting
- Managing and modifying conditional formats
- Interactive conditional formats using formulas
11:00 am Break
11:20 am Logical Functions
- Using the IF function to perform conditional logic
- Nested IFs
- AND and OR functions
12:20 pm Q&A
12:30 pm End of Day 1
9:00 am Welcome and Recap
9:15 am Tables
- Creating and customising tables
- Sorting and Filtering table data
- Automating processes with tables
10:00 am Lookup Functions
- VLOOKUP range lookup
- VLOOKUP exact match
- XLOOKUP (version permitting)
10:40 am Break
11:00 am Pivot Tables, Charts & Dashboards
- Creating and modifying pivot tables
- Adjusting the calculation methods
- Sorting, filtering, and grouping in pivots
- Formatting Pivots
- Creating and customising pivot charts
- Dashboards and slicers
12:20 pm Q&A
12:30 pm End of Day 2
Meet Your Facilitator
Nicky Bull
Corporate Consultant | IT Trainer and Courseware Developer, Blue Chameleon
Nicky Bull is a dynamic corporate trainer and consultant. She has 15 years of commercial experience as a computer programmer and analyst, and over ten years designing and delivering a range of educational programs. She lectures accounting students at Macquarie University and was the lead content designer for the hugely popular Excel Skills for Business course that received the Coursera Outstanding Educator Award for Student Transformation in 2018.
Nicky is passionate about learning and enabling people to use technology confidently and effectively in their workplace. She holds a BSc Hons in Computer Science (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), a BA in English Literature (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (University of Hertfordshire, U.K.)
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