Business & Data

Microsoft Office

Practical Microsoft Office skills for the workplace — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and cloud collaboration — ending in a professional document portfolio.

Level: Beginner–Intermediate Beginner: 4 weeks • Intermediate: 8 weeks Contact for pricing

Prerequisites

No prior Office experience needed for the Beginner level; basic mouse and keyboard use is enough. The Intermediate level requires the Beginner level or equivalent skills.

Certificate

Awarded by Rescue Academy on successful completion of the program's assessments and final project.

Learn Online — Live Classes

Register, receive your schedule, and join live instructor-led Microsoft Office classes on Zoom. Assignments, instructor feedback, and a certificate on completion.

Learn In Person

Attend Microsoft Office classes in person in Juba with hands-on labs, instructor mentorship, and a certificate on completion.

What You'll Learn

  • File management, naming, backups and PDF export
  • Word: letters, CVs, styled reports, templates and mail merge
  • Excel: data entry, formulas, IF/SUMIF, tables, filters and charts
  • PowerPoint: clear design and persuasive presentations
  • Outlook: professional email, inbox organisation and meetings
  • OneDrive and Teams: sharing, co-authoring and version history

Program Objectives

  • Produce accurate, professionally formatted letters, CVs, reports and proposals
  • Manage everyday office data in Excel and present it clearly
  • Create and deliver clear, persuasive presentations
  • Communicate, schedule and collaborate professionally with email and cloud tools
  • Organise, protect and share digital files safely

Who It's For

  • School leavers and graduates preparing for office jobs
  • Administrative, clerical and programme support staff in NGOs, schools and government
  • Small-business owners who prepare their own documents and records
  • Anyone who needs confident, everyday computer and document skills

Where You'll Use It

  • Office administration and reception
  • NGO programme support and reporting
  • School and university administration
  • Small-business documentation, budgeting and marketing materials
  • Job applications and personal records

Curriculum

Instructor-led, practical training. Each level is a block of 4, 8 or 12 weeks; every module ends with a practical activity and an assessment, and every level with a project.

Beginner

4 weeks · 50 guided hours · 5 modules Free taster lessons available Level overview

Module 1: Computer Files, Folders and Cloud Basics 8 h

Build the file-handling habits every office worker needs: organised folders, sensible names, saving formats, backups, printing and basic cloud storage. 3 lessons

Module 2: Creating Documents in Word 10 h

Create and edit everyday documents in Word: typing efficiently, editing text, checking spelling and producing a clean letter. 3 lessons

Module 3: Formatting Professional Documents in Word 10 h

Make documents look professional and consistent using styles, lists, tables, images, headers and footers. 3 lessons

Module 4: Spreadsheet Basics in Excel 12 h

Enter and format data, write basic formulas and create a simple chart for everyday records such as budgets and attendance. 3 lessons

Module 5: Presentations with PowerPoint 10 h

Create clear, readable presentations and deliver them confidently. 3 lessons

Level project: Personal Office Starter Portfolio

Intermediate

8 weeks · 100 guided hours · 6 modules Level overview

Module 1: Long Documents, Templates and Mail Merge 18 h

Build reports, proposals and standard letters efficiently with styles, automatic navigation, templates and mail merge. 3 lessons

Module 2: Excel for Everyday Office Data 20 h

Manage the lists and records offices depend on — staff lists, stock, attendance, expenses — with functions, tables and charts. 4 lessons

Module 3: Presentations that Persuade 14 h

Create presentations for donors, managers and clients that tell a clear story with evidence. 3 lessons

Module 4: Email, Calendar and Professional Communication with Outlook 14 h

Use Outlook (or a similar email client) to communicate professionally, organise the inbox and manage meetings. 3 lessons

Module 5: Collaboration and Cloud Work with OneDrive and Teams 14 h

Work on shared documents with colleagues using cloud storage, co-authoring, comments and version history. 3 lessons

Module 6: Office Skills Portfolio Studio 20 h

Combine Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and cloud tools to complete the level project and the program portfolio under realistic deadlines. 4 lessons

Level project: NGO Monthly Report Pack

Final practical project

Professional Office Portfolio

Each learner assembles and presents a portfolio of workplace documents produced to a professional standard during the program and in a final timed task, demonstrating what they can deliver to an employer.

Deliverables

  • A CV and a tailored application letter (Word and PDF)
  • A styled multi-page report with an automatic table of contents and an embedded chart
  • An Excel workbook with functions, a formatted table, filters and a chart
  • A persuasive presentation with speaker notes
  • A set of three professional emails and a meeting invitation
  • An organised, backed-up and correctly shared portfolio folder

Assessed on

  • Accuracy: correct figures, spelling and consistent information across files
  • Professional formatting and consistent use of styles, templates and layouts
  • Appropriate, efficient use of each application's features
  • Clear, professional written communication
  • Safe, organised file management and sharing

Worked Examples

A selection of the visual, practical examples used in this program's lessons — each teaches a different skill.

Free Course: Microsoft Office Starter

A free introduction to everyday office software: creating and formatting Word documents, a first Excel budget, a clear PowerPoint presentation and organising files safely. Free, self-study, about 5 hours — no certificate. The full program above is taught live by an instructor, with practical assignments, assessments and a certificate.

  1. 1Free lesson 1Introduction to Microsoft Word
  2. 2Free lesson 2Formatting Professional Documents
  3. 3Free lesson 3Microsoft Excel Basics
  4. 4Free lesson 4Building Presentations in PowerPoint
  5. 5Free lesson 5File Management, Printing & Cloud Basics
  6. Final checkQuick Quiz — Microsoft Office Basics
Open the free course

Tools & Technologies

Primary Tools

  • Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint — The core Office applications, desktop or free web versions Practice: Documents, spreadsheets and presentations
  • Microsoft Outlook — Professional email and calendar Practice: Email etiquette, inbox rules, meetings
  • Windows File Explorer — File and folder management on the computer Practice: Organising, naming and backing up files

Supporting Tools

  • OneDrive and Microsoft Teams — Cloud storage, sharing and team collaboration Practice: Permissions, co-authoring, version history, offline sync
  • LibreOffice and Google Workspace — Free alternatives that learners may meet at work; the same skills transfer Practice: Working across file formats (.docx/.odt, .xlsx/.ods)

Professional / Industry Tools

  • Office templates and Accessibility Checker — Consistency and inclusive documents in organisations Practice: Branded templates, alt text, structured headings
  • Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) and ICDL skill areas — Recognised skill frameworks the course content is aligned with; certification exams are separate and optional Practice: Self-assessment against recognised standards

Career Opportunities

  • Office or administrative assistant
  • Receptionist or front-office officer
  • Data entry or records clerk
  • Programme or project assistant (NGO / development sector)
  • Freelance document preparation, typing and presentation services

Practical Projects

  • Personal Office Starter Portfolio — CV, application letter, budget workbook and presentation (Beginner level project)
  • NGO Monthly Report Pack — styled report, data workbook, briefing deck, mail-merged letters and shared folder (Intermediate level project)
  • Professional Office Portfolio for job applications (final project)

Problem-Solving Focus

Problem: A document is lost or corrupted after an unexpected power outage before it was saved

Approach: Rely on AutoRecover and build the habit of saving to cloud storage (OneDrive/Google Drive) as you work, so an outage costs a few minutes of work instead of hours.

Problem: A long report's formatting — headings, spacing, page numbers — becomes inconsistent and hard to fix after many rounds of edits

Approach: Use Word's built-in Styles instead of manually bolding and resizing text, so formatting stays consistent and a Table of Contents can be generated automatically.

Problem: The same certificate or invitation letter needs to go out to fifty people, each with their own name and details

Approach: Use Mail Merge to combine a Word template with an Excel contact list, instead of editing and creating fifty separate documents by hand.

Problem: A presentation to donors or leadership needs to look professional, but the slides are cluttered with too much text

Approach: Apply one idea per slide with minimal text and supporting visuals, keeping the detailed talking points in Presenter View notes instead of on the slide itself.