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BOTI runs practical Microsoft Copilot workshops for business teams. Staff learn to use Microsoft 365 Copilot and ChatGPT for the work they already do: drafting emails, summarising documents, preparing reports, cleaning data and pulling together meeting notes, safely and in line with your data-privacy rules. The training is facilitator-led and booked for whole teams, in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. See all of BOTI’s artificial intelligence and Copilot training courses to compare one-day courses and short online masterclasses.
Courses on this topic at BOTI today
- Microsoft Copilot for Productivity (1 day)
- Microsoft Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams (3-hour online masterclass)
At your offices anywhere in South Africa, live online or at a BOTI venue.
See all Artificial Intelligence and Copilot coursesGet a quote for your teamLearning on your own? Self-paced e-learning from R595 (excl. VAT) · Ask your employer to pay
Your organisation may have rolled out Microsoft 365 Copilot or allowed ChatGPT, but staff barely touch it. Or worse, they paste confidential information into tools they do not understand. This course closes that gap.
The business problem: you are paying for AI nobody really uses
Many South African businesses now have AI within reach. Where licensed, Microsoft 365 Copilot works inside Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and PowerPoint, and ChatGPT is one browser tab away. Yet the time saved is often far smaller than expected, for three reasons:
- Staff do not know how to prompt. They type a vague request, get a generic answer, and conclude the tool “does not work.”
- Nobody trusts the output. Without knowing how to check what AI produces, people either ignore it or, more dangerously, copy confidently wrong answers straight into client work.
- There are no guard-rails. Employees paste contracts, salary data and customer records into public AI tools. That creates a data-privacy and POPIA exposure nobody signed off.
The result is wasted licence spend, uneven quality and real risk. Copilot training deals with all three. Your people learn to prompt well, check the output and stay inside clear, safe boundaries, so the time saving is real and the risk is managed.
This is for South African organisations developing their own staff, not for individual learners or job-seekers. It is written for the people who own the tooling budget, the productivity targets and the compliance: HR and L&D leads, department and operations managers, and business owners.
Who this course is for
This is a workplace upskilling course for teams, not a technical or coding course. It suits any organisation where staff work in documents, email, spreadsheets and meetings every day:
- HR and L&D managers who are rolling out Copilot or ChatGPT and need the workforce to adopt it.
- Department and operations managers whose teams lose hours to drafting, summarising and reformatting.
- Business owners and MDs of SMEs who want more output without hiring more people.
- Admin, finance, sales-support and marketing teams doing high-volume routine writing and data work.
No prior AI experience is assumed, and the course suits both confident and cautious users. For full hands-on value, delegates need access to Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT or both, or should be about to roll them out.
What the course covers: outline and modules
The programme is hands-on from the start. Delegates work in the real tools on realistic business tasks, not slides. A typical outline:
| Module | Focus | What delegates can do afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI at work: the landscape | Understand what Copilot and ChatGPT are, where each fits, and licensing basics |
| 2 | Prompting that works | Write clear, structured prompts; refine and iterate to get usable results |
| 3 | Copilot in Word & Outlook | Draft, rewrite, shorten and summarise emails, letters and documents |
| 4 | Copilot in Excel | Build formulas in plain English, analyse and summarise data |
| 5 | Copilot in Teams & PowerPoint | Summarise meetings, capture actions and build first-draft decks fast |
| 6 | ChatGPT for everyday tasks | Research, brainstorm, draft and reformat — and where it differs from Copilot |
| 7 | Checking the output | Verify accuracy, catch “confidently wrong” answers and fact-check responsibly |
| 8 | Safe, compliant use | Data-privacy, POPIA awareness and a simple do/don’t policy for company information |
For in-house bookings, the modules are tailored to your tools, your templates and your sector, so delegates can apply AI to the work on their desks. If your team lives in spreadsheets, the Excel Power Session: XLOOKUP, PivotTables and Dynamic Arrays masterclass builds the spreadsheet skills that Module 4 relies on. For Module 8, staff who handle customer or employee records can also take POPIA for Every Employee: Handling Personal Information Safely.
One theme runs through every module: AI is an assistant, not an oracle. Delegates learn to sense-test results and to weigh the privacy implications of putting company data into a tool. Your team becomes faster and more careful, and is protected from the most common AI risk: a confident, wrong answer reaching a customer or decision-maker.
How operations and administration staff use ChatGPT and Copilot
Operations and administration roles produce a lot of routine text and data. That makes them a natural place to start. In the training, delegates in these roles practise tasks such as:
- Procedures and checklists: turning rough notes into a draft standard operating procedure, a step-by-step checklist or an induction guide, then checking it against how the work is really done.
- Meeting follow-up: converting meeting notes or a Teams meeting summary into a list of actions, owners and due dates.
- Email and report summaries: condensing long email threads, supplier correspondence or reports into short briefings for a manager.
- Notices and letters: rewriting staff notices, client letters and memos in clear, plain language, in the right tone.
- Tables and schedules: reformatting lists into tables, cleaning up inconsistent data and drafting rosters or schedules for review.
Each task comes with the same two habits. First, remove personal and confidential information before pasting anything into a public tool. Second, check every answer before it is used. To see how these skills extend to everyday tasks across other roles, look at the AI at Work: ChatGPT and Copilot for Everyday Tasks masterclass.
Want to see the full module breakdown for your team and tools? Phone 011 882 8853 or use the BOTI booking page to request a quote. You can also ask BOTI to help you put together a one-page set of prompts that suits your team’s daily work.
Copilot training for large teams
Rolling Copilot out to a large workforce works best in stages, not in one big session. For large teams, BOTI usually runs the training in-house as a series of sessions:
- Group by department or role, so finance staff work on spreadsheets and reports while admin staff work on letters, notices and schedules.
- Start with a pilot group of early adopters who can support colleagues after their own session.
- Agree the rules first. A simple do/don’t policy on company information is covered in every session, so everyone hears the same message.
- Mix formats. Combine in-house sessions with live online sessions for staff at other sites or working remotely.
Tell BOTI how many people need training, which tools they have and your roll-out dates, and BOTI will plan the groups and sessions with you.
Delivery formats
How you deliver the training affects both cost and adoption:
- In-house / on-site at your premises. This usually suits a group, and the session is built around your own tools and templates.
- At BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg. This suits teams that prefer to train away from daily interruptions.
- Live online, instructor-led. This suits distributed teams, with no travel, and fits tools that are used remotely anyway.
Once you have several people to train, in-house delivery is usually the most practical option.
Accreditation
Copilot training is a practical, facilitator-led professional skills programme focused on AI skills that delegates can use straight away. It is not an accredited qualification; see the note at the end of this article. BOTI itself is a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider and holds Services SETA accreditation 12582 for legacy programmes, but this course sits outside that scope.
Looking for an accredited computer-skills route? BOTI has applied to the QCTO for accreditation of the End User Computing skills programmes: SP-240201 Basic, SP-240202 Intermediate and SP-240203 Advanced. Enrolment opens only once the QCTO confirms the accreditation. Until then, you can register interest for the Basic End User Computing skills programme (SP-240201).
Funding: using your skills development budget for AI training
Digital-skills training like this can be paid for from money you are probably already spending. As general guidance only:
- The Skills Development Levy (SDL) is 1% of the leviable amount (total remuneration). Employers whose leviable amount over the next 12 months will not exceed R500,000 are exempt.[1]
- A mandatory grant of 20% of the levies paid can be recovered from your SETA. This applies when your Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report are submitted by 30 April and your levy payments are up to date.[2] Planned AI upskilling can be included in your Workplace Skills Plan.
- The B-BBEE skills development target is measured against 6% of the leviable amount, not 6% of payroll. Of that, 3.5% is for learning programmes for black people and 2.5% for bursaries for black students at higher education institutions.[3] Copilot and ChatGPT training for qualifying staff may count towards this element. Sector codes may differ, and no points can be guaranteed.
Training may also support your tender work. Public procurement still runs under the PFMA, the MFMA, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and the Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2022. These regulations score “specific goals” set by each organ of state. The Public Procurement Act 28 of 2024 never came into force. On 17 September 2026 the Constitutional Court declared it invalid, because Parliament did not allow reasonable public participation.[4] Parliament may pass a new procurement law. A well-kept skills development record supports both your scorecard and your bids. This is general information, not financial or legal advice; confirm the details with your SETA, Skills Development Facilitator or B-BBEE verification professional.
Why BOTI
BOTI is a South African corporate training company and a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider. It is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor, has a Google rating of 4.8 from 770+ reviews, offers 450 courses, and counts Sasol, Glencore and the City of Johannesburg among its clients. BOTI delivers practical training for whole teams, in-house, at its venue or online. The training is tailored to your real tools and documents, focused on adoption and grounded in safe, POPIA-aware use.
AI upskilling rarely sits alone. Related training that pairs well with this course:
- Microsoft Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams: a 3-hour online masterclass for staff who need a fast, focused start.
- Microsoft Excel training: the core spreadsheet foundation that Copilot works on top of.
- Microsoft Power BI Basics: for teams moving from spreadsheets to interactive reports and dashboards.
- Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) Training Course: to structure your WSP and ATR around this and other training.
- The full BOTI course range: sales, management, finance, HR, Microsoft and technical training for teams.
Not sure where to start? BOTI can help you map the right path for your departments and roll-out plan.
Frequently asked questions
Who offers Microsoft Copilot workshops for business teams?
BOTI runs practical Microsoft Copilot workshops for business teams, covering Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and PowerPoint alongside ChatGPT. You can book the one-day Microsoft Copilot for Productivity course or a 3-hour online masterclass, delivered in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online.
Can BOTI run Copilot training for large teams?
Yes. For large teams BOTI runs the training in-house as a series of sessions, so each department works on its own documents, templates and data-privacy rules. Tell BOTI how many people need training, which tools they have and your roll-out dates, and BOTI will plan the groups and sessions with you.
How can ChatGPT be used by someone in operations and administration?
Operations and administration staff use ChatGPT to draft standard operating procedures and checklists, turn rough meeting notes into action lists, summarise long emails and reports, rewrite notices in plain language, and reformat lists and schedules into tables. The training shows them how to remove personal and confidential information before they paste anything in, and how to check every answer before it is used.
Do we need Microsoft 365 Copilot licences or ChatGPT access to attend?
For full hands-on value, delegates should have access to Microsoft 365 with Copilot enabled, ChatGPT, or both. If you are still planning your roll-out, tell BOTI when you book and the session will be built around the tools you have.
Is the training accredited, and can it count towards B-BBEE?
The Copilot course is a professional skills programme, not an accredited qualification, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. Training spend on your staff may count towards the skills development element of your B-BBEE scorecard, depending on who is trained and how the spend is recorded. Confirm this with your verification agency or Skills Development Facilitator, as no points can be guaranteed.
Request a quote for Copilot training
Stop paying for AI your team barely uses. Request a quote and a BOTI consultant will scope a Copilot and ChatGPT programme around your team, group size, dates and delivery format. The course this article describes is Microsoft Copilot for Productivity, a one-day, hands-on course for business teams. Training runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. Call BOTI on 011 882 8853 or email [email protected]. This course is not accredited. It is delivered as a professional skills programme, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Sources
- Skills Development Levy – South African Revenue Service (SARS), 2026.
- Mandatory Grants – Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA), 2026.
- Codes of Good Practice on B-BBEE: Code Series 300, Statement 300 – Skills Development (Government Gazette 42496) – Department of Trade and Industry, 31 May 2019.
- Godongwana notes Constitutional Court judgment on Public Procurement Act – SAnews (South African Government News Agency), 18 September 2026.