Learning Excel online, at a training centre or on your own: which suits office staff

Search for "learn Excel online or in a classroom" and many of the results are written by the people selling the courses. This article does not rank any provider. It pulls together Microsoft's official pages, learning platforms' own pages, a study on online course completion and discussions on Vietnamese forums, so you can pick the way of learning that fits you.

It is only about how and where to learn. For what to learn first and what to leave for later, see the Excel learning path for office staff.

Three common ways to learn

Online video courses. You watch pre-recorded lessons and do the exercises at your own pace. In Vietnam there are platforms such as Gitiho and Unica; internationally there are Coursera and LinkedIn Learning. Some sell videos only; others add a Q&A group or instructors who answer questions.

Training-centre classes (or live online classes with a trainer). You follow a schedule, and someone explains, demonstrates and corrects your work directly. Many computer training centres offer both group classes and one-to-one tutoring; some teach online over video calls with the same content as their on-site classes.

Self-study with free resources. Microsoft's Excel video training page is organised by topic (getting started, formulas and functions, importing and analysing data, formatting, collaboration, troubleshooting) and costs nothing. There are also YouTube channels, blogs, and Excel forums such as Giải Pháp Excel where you can ask when you get stuck.

Cost: look at how you pay, not just the number

Course prices change constantly with promotions, so this article gives no amounts. What is worth comparing is the pricing model, because it decides what you actually end up paying:

• Buy individual courses with lifetime access. Gitiho, for example, sells single courses with lifetime access alongside a membership plan. You pay once, but each extra topic (Power Query, VBA) is another purchase.
• Monthly or annual subscription. Coursera Plus has monthly and annual plans that unlock most courses on the platform; the monthly plan comes with a trial. LinkedIn Learning is also subscription-based. This suits intensive study over a few months; if you study on and off, the money keeps leaving every month.
• Full-course tuition at a centre. Usually priced by number of sessions. One Hanoi centre, for instance, lists a 10-session Excel course of 2 hours per session with one-to-one tutoring. Ask whether you can repeat lessons, pause or reschedule.
• Free. Microsoft's material, public videos, forums. No money, but you spend time filtering material and nobody marks your work.

Work out the cost of the skills you actually need, not the cost per hour of video.

Schedule and pace

Video courses clearly win on flexibility: study at 10 p.m., rewind the hard parts, skip what you already know. For people who often work overtime, this is the main reason to go online.

Scheduled classes are the opposite: less flexible, but they give you a fixed rhythm. Some find that a burden; others need exactly that to avoid dropping out.

On pace: videos move at your speed, group classes at the class average. If you already know the basics, a beginner group class can be dull; if you are brand new, a video can move past something you did not understand and nobody will notice.

Who marks your work?

This is the biggest difference, and it is often ignored when comparing prices. Watching someone else is easy; working with messy data yourself is what exposes the gaps.

• Trainer-led class: the trainer sees your mistake on the screen and shows you how to fix it. Centres' own pages usually stress explaining, demonstrating and correcting errors in person.
• Video course: it depends. Some courses have only videos and answer files; others have a Q&A group or instructors replying in a discussion area. Read carefully how support works and how long answers take.
• Self-study: you check yourself by comparing results with your old method, or post a question on a forum. On the Giải Pháp Excel forum, members typically advise beginners to bring a concrete problem from work rather than general theory questions, and to learn by doing.

The real problem with video courses: not finishing

Buying an online course and never finishing it is common, and there is data on it. A study by Justin Reich and José A. Ruipérez-Valiente (Science, 2019) analysed MIT and Harvard MOOCs on edX from 2012 to 2018. As reported by Inside Higher Ed, only about 3% of registered learners completed their course in 2017–18; learners who paid for a verified certificate completed at a much higher rate, around half.

These were large free open courses, not paid Excel courses in Vietnam, so the numbers do not transfer directly. But they show that signing up is not enough: self-paced study needs discipline and commitment. If you know you tend to drop out, a scheduled class or a course with someone keeping you on track may be worth the money.

In a Tinhte thread asking where to learn Excel, participants raised a point that applies to every format: if you do not use what you learned regularly, you will forget it after a while. That is community experience, but it fits the advice to practise on your own work files.

Course certificates vs the MOS certification

These two are often confused:

• A course completion certificate is issued by the platform or centre. It shows you finished the course; its value depends on the issuer's reputation and whether employers know them.
• Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) is issued by Microsoft after a proctored exam. According to Microsoft Learn, Excel Associate (Microsoft 365 Apps) is exam MO-210, lasting 50 minutes, available in Vietnamese, and covering worksheets and workbooks, cells and ranges, tables, formulas and functions, and charts. Microsoft recommends about 150 hours of instruction and hands-on practice. The exam price depends on the country where it is taken; after a first failed attempt you can retake it after 24 hours.

Worth noting: the Microsoft Learn page says there is no official training for this exam, only a skills outline. So wherever you study, use that outline as a checklist. If MOS is your goal, choose a course that practises exactly those skill groups.

Which certificate carries more weight is up to each employer.

Quick comparison

How to judge a course syllabus

Before paying, open the detailed syllabus and check:

• Does it name specific skills? Tables, SUMIFS, lookup functions, PivotTables, charts, Power Query. A syllabus that only says "advanced Excel" or "master Excel" is a sign to ask more.
• Is the order sensible? Compare it with the Excel learning path for office staff: clean data entry first, then functions and reports.
• Which Excel version is taught? If the course uses Microsoft 365 but your company still runs Excel 2016 or 2019, some newer functions will not be available at work.
• Are exercise files downloadable? And is the data large and "dirty" enough to feel real?
• Support after the course: how long Q&A stays open and how quickly answers come. If you can try a few lessons first, do.

To try these criteria on a specific course, see the summary page for Gitiho's Tuyệt đỉnh Excel course (chapters, length, fee on the date checked). That page uses partner links: Dùng Gì may earn a commission if you buy the course through it.

A checklist to decide

1. Have you abandoned an online course before? If so, consider a scheduled class, or set your own deadline and ask someone to check on you.
2. Is your work schedule stable? With frequent overtime or travel, a video course or a flexible one-to-one class is easier to keep up with.
3. Do you need one skill quickly or a thorough foundation? For one urgent skill, Microsoft's free material plus a forum question may be enough.
4. Do you need someone to mark your work? If you are brand new or get stuck working alone, marking is worth more than hours of video.
5. Do you need a certificate? If you must prove your skills to employers, look into MOS; for course certificates, check whether anyone in your field recognises them.

Many people combine approaches: learn the basics from free material, then pay only for the hard parts where they need guidance.

Frequently asked questions

Is learning Excel online as effective as a training centre?

The content can be equivalent; the difference is who marks your work and who keeps you on pace. If you are self-motivated and the course has a Q&A channel, online learning holds up well. If you tend to drop out or need direct correction, a trainer-led class usually fits better.

Is free self-study enough for office work?

For most office tasks it can be, especially if you use Microsoft's official material, practise on copies of your own work files and ask on forums when stuck. What you miss is someone to mark your work and a ready-made path, so follow a clear learning path yourself.

Do I have to attend a centre to take the MOS exam?

No. MOS is an exam for which Microsoft issues the certification, with no requirement on where you studied. Microsoft Learn provides the MO-210 skills outline for self-preparation; a centre or online course is just one way to prepare.