Word excel

stevescarratt

Hi my wife has just been made redundant at 64 and is looking for a couple of years more work .Was a receptionist in a garage but is struggling to find anything as they all want word / excel knowledge which she hasn’t ,can find online courses etc but the problem we have is we don’t have Microsoft office at home,and can’t afford the subscription! How can she get it to train on it? spoke to her job coach and even they are struggling to help us! Any ideas ? Probably a lost cause 🙂

DullGreyGuy

You can use the online versions of Office for free, they arent identical to the application version but are fairly close these days. You just have to sign up for a free microsoft account to use them

eamon

No need to spend any money just your time. Download Libre Office (it is free). It is an office suite and very similar to Microsoft Office. There a lots of "how to do" tutorials on Youtube. For materials & content to practise with use your home as a resource. For example to learn Libre Write (same as MS Word) and how to type faster start with copying newpaper articles or book pages and just play with all the icons at the top of the screen and see what they do and how to apply them. Practise writing letters etc. Libre Calc is a spreadsheet similar to MS Excel. Again use your home contents as source material. For example you could create a spreadsheet that lists all you kitchen cupboard contents, quantity, cost, totals etc. Play about with the icons to see what they do etc.

Lastly if you have a local library many have PC's that visitors can use and they will likely use MS products. I would imagine that your wife is more than capable and its never to late to learn new skills and put to good use many of the skills that she has acquired over the years after all she has worked in a busy garage. Don't take no or its too hard for an answer.

DullGreyGuy

eamon said:

No need to spend any money just your time. Download Libre Office (it is free). It is an office suite and very similar to Microsoft Office. There a lots of "how to do" tutorials on Youtube. For materials & content to practise with use your home as a resource. For example to learn Libre Write (same as MS Word) and how to type faster start with copying newpaper articles or book pages and just play with all the icons at the top of the screen and see what they do and how to apply them. Practise writing letters etc. Libre Calc is a spreadsheet similar to MS Excel. Again use your home contents as source material. For example you could create a spreadsheet that lists all you kitchen cupboard contents, quantity, cost, totals etc. Play about with the icons to see what they do etc.

For home use things like Libre are a good suggestion however I am not sure I'd want to do a training course in Excel and try and complete it using Libre Calc or Apple Numbers etc... I've tried following tutorials on MS Office using their Apple version of the apps and that was difficult enough

Undervalued

DullGreyGuy said:

eamon said:

No need to spend any money just your time. Download Libre Office (it is free). It is an office suite and very similar to Microsoft Office. There a lots of "how to do" tutorials on Youtube. For materials & content to practise with use your home as a resource. For example to learn Libre Write (same as MS Word) and how to type faster start with copying newpaper articles or book pages and just play with all the icons at the top of the screen and see what they do and how to apply them. Practise writing letters etc. Libre Calc is a spreadsheet similar to MS Excel. Again use your home contents as source material. For example you could create a spreadsheet that lists all you kitchen cupboard contents, quantity, cost, totals etc. Play about with the icons to see what they do etc.

For home use things like Libre are a good suggestion however I am not sure I'd want to do a training course in Excel and try and complete it using Libre Calc or Apple Numbers etc... I've tried following tutorials on MS Office using their Apple version of the apps and that was difficult enough

Exactly!

Every time Microsoft Office is mentioned on this forum somebody trots out the use Libra / Open office its free line!

It is OK (ish) for doing your own stuff but it is hopeless when you need to interact with the "real thing" and I certainly wouldn't suggest it for training to be able to truthfully claim MS Office experience in a job application.

The poster's other suggestion about using MS Office at a public library is certainly worth pursuing. They may also offer either in person training courses or video based ones that can be borrowed.

stevescarratt

Thanks for the responses yes we do have open office at home but workplaces don’t use that and want word /excel experience. Am in contact with the career services to see what help they can give. Glad to see that someone thinks she’s still capable! Wasn’t aware that I had said otherwise!

Singlemummy_2

Did she use word processing and spreadsheets in her role as a receptionist? If so what were those - I would be demonstrating those skills in any application rather than word/excel specific.

If she has experience using word processing/emails/spreadsheets the fact it is not Microsoft shouldn’t be dismissed by an employer 

eamon

Ok I agree that Libre isn't as good as MS Office but if you are put of applying for jobs because you don't have Word & Excel skills then what are you to do if you don't have a budget for the real thing?

My suggestion of downloading Libre as it is free is a valid option to learn some new skills i.e. creating a document and a spreadsheet with perhaps a column of numbers where you can learn how to do addition, averages etc. The basic's are largely similar and in my experience most MS Office users barely touch all the functions.

My local library offers free Internet access and word processing but you need to book a time slot, i suspect that other LA's are similar. So if I was in the OP's shoes I would get Libre, start practising then move to the library and try out MS Office.

Grumpy_chap

stevescarratt said:

Was a receptionist in a garage but is struggling to find anything as they all want word / excel knowledge which she hasn’t 

spoke to her job coach and even they are struggling to help us!

What, if any, IT packages does your wife have experience of?  Either in the work-place or outside of work?  If there were similar packages to Word & Excel, much of the skill is transferable to the MS programs.  In part, employers are often only interested that the applicant has basic IT-literacy and can use basic packages.

It is poor that the Work Coach has not been much help - my wife has recently completed some courses that were suggested to her by the Work Coach - that included an Excel course.

Having said that, it might be worth simply obtaining the prospectus from the local adult education college and looking whether they have any foundation courses available.  In our local adult colleges, these courses are offered free in many cases (subject to eligibility) and called "essential skills" or "skills for life" or similar categories.  One of the main criteria is that the inidividual does not hold an 'O' Level in the subject.
This could well be something to investigate.

Our Council also offer a variety of training opportunities under the banner "digital technology for older people" - less formal and less comprehensive than the adult college courses, but there might be something similar in your area that would do what is needed.  Don't be put off by the "older people" categorisation as, it seems, many of these are available from the eligible age of 50 yo.  

Marcon

stevescarratt said:

Hi my wife has just been made redundant at 64 and is looking for a couple of years more work .Was a receptionist in a garage but is struggling to find anything as they all want word / excel knowledge which she hasn’t ,can find online courses etc but the problem we have is we don’t have Microsoft office at home,and can’t afford the subscription! How can she get it to train on it? spoke to her job coach and even they are struggling to help us! Any ideas ? Probably a lost cause 🙂

It's worth talking to your local authority to see whether they can offer any help/have any funding for such a situation. A surprising number do, so depending on where you live, that might be useful.

Much as I applaud her willingness to learn, training on Word and Excel isn't a quick process unless an employer simply wants the most rudimentary grasp of the basics. It could be more productive for her to confirm she has an excellent grasp (assuming she does) of word processing and spreadsheets gained through Open Office, and stressing her enthusiasm(!) for extending her skills and knowledge. If she can give an example of how she's put this into practice, that would enhance her chances of an interview - and nothing at all wrong in saying she's spending 2 hours a day (or whatever) at the local library training on Word/Excel because she cannot afford to buy the suite for home use.

DullGreyGuy

stevescarratt said:

Thanks for the responses yes we do have open office at home but workplaces don’t use that and want word /excel experience. Am in contact with the career services to see what help they can give. Glad to see that someone thinks she’s still capable! Wasn’t aware that I had said otherwise!

As mentioned, you can access the Microsoft 365 Online for free which includes online Excel and Word for free.

What jobs is she applying for and what level of skill in these tools are they really looking for? I've known plenty of professionals who state they are advanced skill level in Word and having seen their documents they clearly arent but for the average user and for print format its really about knowing how to type, save etc... most people bodge making sure headers stay with the first paragraph etc rather than using paragraph settings.

Excel is a little different as there are those that can just do data entry, maybe do a total row at the bottom all the way to through to those that create a VBA based longevity capital model that predicts capital needs per year for a multinational insurer with £50bn of reserves and test sensitivities (you need half a day to run it mind).