With the New Year kicking off, it is time to review the trends of 2021. What courses were the most popular? How were our operations affected by the ongoing pandemic? What’s next?

Just like the applications we teach people how to use, our operations are perpetually innovating and improving – and 2021 was no exception.

Power BI

Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence service. It offers the capability to prepare and discover data as well as display it in interactive dashboards. On top of government agencies and not-for-profits, Power BI is used by some large and very recognisable companies. A deep and dynamic understanding of how to get the most out of Power BI is a valuable skill, with organisations reporting a 366% ROI and savings of 1.25 hours per week.

Our beginners course, which lays a strong foundation in the app, continues to rank among our most popular courses. With the introduction of our DA-100 certification package – which includes the opportunity to become Microsoft certified – we saw increased interest in our whole suite of Power BI courses. Becoming Microsoft certified makes your employment much more competitive.

Certification Packages

We introduced many new packages that included Microsoft certifications. The new certifications included the Excel MO-201 and Power Apps PL-100. Our students learned how to achieve more with expert knowledge in these applications. Becoming Microsoft certified makes them stand out from the crowd.

Python

We also offer Python certification. The course is run and maintained by our resident data analyst Tamara Shatar PhD. She holds a PhD in agricultural data science and has extensive experience in Data Analytics. She also teaches our R and SQL courses.

Python is a general-purpose programming language (it is designed to be used for building in a variety of domains). It is often used for data science and automation and owes part of it’s popularity to the syntax that mirrors the English language, making it easy to learn and decipher. Because of how well it is designed, it can be extended to easily fulfill specialised needs. Large companies will often use AI and machine learning to support operations, and these actions can be fulfilled by using Python.

Our certification is a good way to demonstrate to potential or current employers your proficiency in python. In the process of obtaining your certification, you will work with the support of our experienced trainer Tamara to work on a project that relates to your professional or personal interests. The introduction of python and python certification this year saw many students come to our training and pick up the valuable skill.

Excel

As always, Excel remains very popular. The spreadsheet program owes its longevity to a user-friendly interface and it’s wide-ranging uses. Excel represents one of our many strengths as we began as Excel Consulting before transitioning to focus on training to fill a market gap.

Excel Intermediate retained it’s spot at the top of the pack, being the most popular Excel course. To meet the ever-expanding needs of our students and to keep our courses up to date, we introduced a new level of training – Excel Expert. The Expert level deals mainly with the handling of data and introduces Power Automate and Power BI and how these applications are inherently linked to Excel.

As mentioned above, 2021 also saw the introduction of the Excel certification. Given that being able to use Excel is a widespread skill, the certification will distinguish you from the rest as a Microsoft certified expert.

Microsoft 365

Following Office 365’s rebranding as Microsoft 365 last year, we updated our offering of Microsoft 365. It steadily gained more interest and become one of our fastest growing applications to train this year. This increase in the numbers training represents a commitment by many companies to become much more efficient. Microsoft 365 is a staple in many organisations but it’s potential is rarely unlocked. Many students who come through our courses write in their reviews that they believe that Microsoft was previously being underutilised within their organisation.

Remote Learning

We are so proud to have received so many great reviews for our remote training courses. Our trainers were not only able to meet but exceed our expectations in 2021. We will continue to expand our offering of remote instructor-led training across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

Thanks for such a great year, and we cant wait to see you back in the classroom!