Excel Skills

Build practical Excel skills to analyze data, automate workflows, and communicate business insights

Build the technical skills you'll use on the job. 6-7 hours and self-paced.
Stand out in your application to Forage Academy. Show us you're a motivated candidate.

Why complete this Job Simulation

A risk-free way to build your technical skills with us at Forage Academy. Complete example tasks and build your confidence to ace your applications.

Self-paced

6-7 hours

No grades

No assessments

Intermediate

Excel is used across countless roles, but knowing where to click is only the beginning. The real value comes from knowing how to use Excel to work efficiently, investigate data, uncover insights, and help others make better decisions.

In this job simulation, you’ll step into the role of a team member working with real-world business data. You’ll progress through a connected series of challenges that reflect how Excel is used in the workplace, from preparing and analyzing a dataset to automating repetitive work, creating a dashboard, and presenting recommendations to decision-makers.

By completing the simulation, you’ll practice how to:

Navigate and work efficiently with data in Excel.
Identify data quality issues, trends, and opportunities.
Use conditional formatting to make important information stand out.
Automate repetitive analysis using macros.
Build charts and dashboards that communicate performance clearly.
Turn your analysis into actionable business recommendations.

You’ll finish with experience using Excel as more than a spreadsheet tool. You’ll use it as a practical tool for solving problems and communicating insights in a professional setting.

How it works

Complete tasks guided by pre-recorded videos and example answers from our team at Forage Academy. No live sessions, all self-paced.
Earn a certificate and add it to your resume or LinkedIn as an extracurricular activity.
Stand out in applications. Confidently answer interview questions and explain how you have the right skills for our team.

Skills you will learn and practice:

Dashboard Development

Data Storytelling

Data Visualization

Excel

Exploratory Data Analysis

Knowledge Assessment

Introduction from Forage Academy

Tasks

Task One: Prepare and Explore Business Data

1-2 hoursIntroductory

Clean a sales dataset and uncover the patterns that matter

What you'll learn

How to navigate and work with data more efficiently using Excel shortcuts.
How to review a dataset for missing values, errors, and unusual information.
How to use conditional formatting to highlight patterns and important values.
How different conditional formatting rules can make large datasets easier to review.

What you'll do

Practice useful shortcuts for navigating and selecting data.
Explore a dataset and identify characteristics that require attention.
Apply conditional formatting rules to highlight errors, missing values, and selected data patterns.
Compare your completed spreadsheet with an example answer.

Task One: Prepare and Explore Business Data

1-2 hoursIntroductory

Clean a sales dataset and uncover the patterns that matter

What you'll learn

How to navigate and work with data more efficiently using Excel shortcuts.
How to review a dataset for missing values, errors, and unusual information.
How to use conditional formatting to highlight patterns and important values.
How different conditional formatting rules can make large datasets easier to review.

What you'll do

Practice useful shortcuts for navigating and selecting data.
Explore a dataset and identify characteristics that require attention.
Apply conditional formatting rules to highlight errors, missing values, and selected data patterns.
Compare your completed spreadsheet with an example answer.

Reviews

4.6

I liked that the tasks felt like real work. Building a dashboard from the telemetry data and then working through the Excel tasks (conditional formatting, formulas, charts and macros) gave me practical skills I can use straight away. The step-by-step structure, with a short lesson, a quick check and then a hands-on task, made each new tool easy to pick up.

Student, Heriot-Watt University

I liked that the simulation was practical and focused on real-world Excel skills. The activities provided hands-on experience with data analysis, formulas, charts, dashboards, and macros. It was a good way to apply Excel concepts in a structured business scenario and build confidence through practical tasks.

Student, KCC Institute of Technology & Management

The hands-on practice with Excel macros and VBA gave me a clear, realistic look at corporate data automation. I loved how the task directly mirrored actual workplace scenarios—sorting complex datasets, structuring CAGR formulas, and linking interactive macro buttons. It made abstract spreadsheet concepts feel immediate and actionable.

Student