Free Training & Career Tips... Subscribe to Get Weekly Career Tips
By Subscribing You are Agreeing to Terms and Conditions
Excel Copilot training shows staff and managers how to use Microsoft 365 Copilot inside Excel to write formulas in plain English, clean and analyse data, and summarise spreadsheets, and how to check what the AI produces before anyone relies on it. At BOTI these skills are taught in the courses in our Artificial Intelligence and Copilot training courses range. Managers who want broader development alongside AI skills can browse BOTI’s management training courses in South Africa.
Courses on this topic at BOTI today
- Microsoft Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams (3-hour online masterclass)
- Microsoft Copilot for Productivity (1 day)
- Excel Power Session: XLOOKUP, PivotTables and Dynamic Arrays (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
If your team works in Excel every day but still loses time to VLOOKUP, pivot tables and nested IF statements, Excel Copilot is a skill gap worth closing. Copilot is the AI assistant built into Microsoft 365. Once your people know how to prompt it well and check its output, routine analysis takes less time, formula errors become less common and reports for managers become clearer.
BOTI does not run a separate Excel-only Copilot course. Excel Copilot skills are covered in Microsoft Copilot for Productivity (1 day) and in the shorter Microsoft Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams masterclass (3 hours, online). For core Excel skills, see the Excel Power Session: XLOOKUP, PivotTables and Dynamic Arrays masterclass.
Quick summary
- Topic: Using Microsoft 365 Copilot inside Excel
- BOTI courses: Microsoft Copilot for Productivity (1 day); Microsoft Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams (3-hour online masterclass); Excel Power Session (3-hour online masterclass)
- Delivery: In-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online
- Audience: Finance, operations, HR, sales-ops and admin staff, and managers who use Excel regularly
- Certificate: BOTI certificate of attendance
The business problem this course solves
Many South African businesses have a productivity gap that has nothing to do with effort. Skilled staff spend hours each week on repetitive spreadsheet work: cleaning data, rebuilding the same monthly report, or chasing a formula that broke when a column moved. The skill is in the room, but the speed is not.
Microsoft 365 Copilot changes how that work gets done. Your team no longer has to remember exact function syntax. They describe what they want in plain language, such as “highlight the regions that missed target” or “flag overdue invoices”, and Copilot suggests the formula, builds the analysis or drafts the summary. Used well, it:
- Cuts the time spent on routine reporting and data cleanup.
- Reduces formula errors that lead to bad numbers in management reports.
- Lowers dependency on the one or two “Excel experts” everyone else queues behind.
- Makes data analysis accessible to staff who were never confident with advanced Excel.
The catch is that Copilot only helps when people know how to prompt it, check its output and fit it into a real workflow. That is what this training builds.
Who should attend
The training is designed for South African teams that use Excel regularly and have access to Microsoft 365 Copilot, or are about to roll it out. It suits:
- Finance and accounts teams building monthly reports, reconciliations and budgets
- Operations and supply-chain staff tracking stock, throughput and KPIs
- HR and L&D teams managing headcount, leave, training and payroll data
- Sales and sales-ops staff working with pipelines, targets and commission sheets
- Administrators and PAs who maintain trackers, schedules and registers
- Managers who want faster, cleaner data to make decisions
It works for confident Excel users who want to work faster and for less confident users who find advanced Excel intimidating. HR and L&D buyers often roll it out across a whole department to raise the baseline in one go.
Course outline: what your team will learn
The training is hands-on. Delegates work in Excel with Copilot on realistic business data rather than theory. The table shows the Excel Copilot topics teams usually need. When you book an in-house group, tell BOTI which of these matter most so the session can focus on them.
| # | Module | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copilot in Microsoft 365 | What Copilot is, where it lives in Excel, licensing and data-privacy basics |
| 2 | Prompting Excel Copilot well | Writing clear prompts; refining and iterating to get the right result |
| 3 | Formulas in plain English | Generating, explaining and fixing formulas without memorising syntax |
| 4 | Cleaning and shaping data | Using Copilot to format, deduplicate, split and standardise messy data |
| 5 | Analysis and insights | Spotting trends, outliers and correlations; asking questions of your data |
| 6 | Pivot tables and charts | Building and adjusting pivots and visualisations through Copilot |
| 7 | Summarising and reporting | Turning a raw sheet into a clear, manager-ready summary |
| 8 | Checking Copilot’s work | Verifying outputs, catching errors and knowing when to trust the AI |
| 9 | Building it into the workflow | Repeatable patterns for monthly reporting and team handovers |
For in-house bookings, examples can be built around your own spreadsheets, reports and sector, so delegates leave able to apply Copilot to the work already on their desks. You can also ask BOTI to help you put together a short set of tested prompts for your team’s recurring reports.
Why responsible, accurate use matters
A core theme of the training is that Copilot is an assistant, not an oracle. Delegates learn to verify what Copilot produces by checking totals and sense-testing results. They also learn to weigh the data-privacy implications of putting company information into an AI tool. This guards against the most common AI risk: confidently wrong numbers reaching a decision-maker. Your team leaves faster and more careful.
Copilot and Excel skills for managers
Managers rarely build spreadsheets from scratch, but they review them, question them and make decisions from them. Knowing what Copilot can and cannot do helps a manager ask better questions of a report, spot a summary that does not add up, and set sensible rules for AI use in the team. For a manager-focused view of AI, see AI for Managers and Leaders (1 day). It pairs well with BOTI’s broader leadership and management programmes.
Delivery formats
BOTI runs Copilot and Excel training in three ways:
- In-house at your premises, built around your own spreadsheets. This suits groups and makes it easier to transfer the skills back to the job.
- At BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg.
- Live online instructor-led sessions for distributed and hybrid teams.
Request a quote to confirm dates, group size and the delivery format that suits your team.
Accreditation and your Skills Development budget
Copilot training at BOTI is a practical, facilitator-led programme focused on Copilot and Excel skills delegates can use straight away. It does not lead to a qualification.
If you need accredited computer skills training, BOTI has applied to the QCTO for accreditation of the End User Computing skills programmes, such as Basic End User Computing (SP-240201). Enrolment opens only once the QCTO confirms the accreditation, and you can register interest now.
On funding: the Skills Development Levy (SDL) is 1% of the leviable amount (total remuneration), and employers whose leviable amount will not exceed R500,000 over the next 12 months are exempt[1]. Under the amended B-BBEE generic Codes, the overall skills development target is 6% of the leviable amount. That is made up of 3.5% on learning programmes for black people and 2.5% on bursaries for black students at higher education institutions[2]. Sector codes may differ.
Whether a non-accredited course like this is recognised on your scorecard depends on how the Codes classify the learning programme and on your verification. Do not assume it will earn points.
Funding note: This is general guidance, not legal or financial advice. Your B-BBEE verification agency or Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) should confirm how any spend is recognised on your scorecard.
Where this fits in your Microsoft and data skills path
Copilot in Excel is one step in a broader data-skills path. A typical BOTI path looks like this:
- Build the Excel foundation with Microsoft Excel training for teams who need core spreadsheet skills first.
- Add AI assistance with Copilot training, so existing Excel users work faster and check AI output properly.
- Scale to reporting and dashboards with Microsoft Power BI Basics for teams moving from spreadsheets to interactive reports.
Not sure where your team sits? Ask us for a recommendation and we will map the right course to each role. You can also browse BOTI’s Microsoft Office and computer skills courses to plan a department-wide programme.
Why BOTI
BOTI (Business Optimization Training Institute) is a South African corporate training company and a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider with Level 1 B-BBEE status. It has a catalogue of 450+ courses and a Google rating of 4.8 from more than 770 reviews. We have delivered training to organisations including Sasol, Glencore and the City of Johannesburg. Our Microsoft and data programmes are built for South African workplaces: practical, and for in-house bookings, built around your team’s real spreadsheets.
Frequently asked questions
What is Excel Copilot training?
It is hands-on training that teaches your staff to use Microsoft 365 Copilot inside Excel to generate formulas in plain English, clean and analyse data, build pivot tables and charts, and summarise spreadsheets. The focus is on real business tasks and on checking Copilot’s output for accuracy.
Do we need Microsoft 365 Copilot licences to attend?
To get full hands-on value, delegates should have access to Microsoft 365 with Copilot enabled. If you are still planning your rollout, tell BOTI when you book so the session can be planned around what your team has.
Is there an accredited Copilot qualification in South Africa?
BOTI’s Copilot training is not accredited and does not lead to a qualification. Delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. For accredited computer skills, BOTI has applied to the QCTO for accreditation of the Basic, Intermediate and Advanced End User Computing skills programmes. Enrolment opens only once accreditation is confirmed, and you can register interest with BOTI now.
Can managers attend, and does BOTI offer management training?
Yes. Managers who review reports and make decisions from spreadsheets benefit from understanding what Copilot can and cannot do. BOTI also runs a one-day AI for Managers and Leaders course and a wide range of leadership and management courses for South African teams.
Can the course be run in-house and customised for our company?
Yes. Training can run in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. For in-house bookings, examples can be built around your own spreadsheets, sector and reporting.
Ready to make your team faster in Excel?
To give your staff practical Copilot skills for everyday spreadsheet work, book Microsoft Copilot for Productivity. 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], or request a quote and we will help you choose the group size, dates and delivery format. 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.
- 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.