Microsoft Access Training Courses

This page contains a cornucopia of Access training information!

Access classroom training

We run a variety of courses in MS Access - choose the right one for you!

Querying in Access Access for Developers Advanced VBA

Can't see the course you want? Have a look at our onsite Microsoft Access training page, or see our other Access training resources.

Not sure which course you want? See what you can learn on one of our Access courses.

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Which is the right Access course for you?

Access is Microsoft's end-user database (think of it as SQL Server's much younger brother, and you won't go far wrong).

If you're contemplating upsizing an Access database to SQL Server, we also offer tailored training covering the main pitfalls to avoid.

Before discussing the training that Wise Owl offer, some important notes to begin with:

Note	Details
Availability of Access courses	We were finding that many of our Access courses were running with one or at most two delegates, so we no longer schedule public Access training courses. However, if you have three or more people who want training we'll always consider adding courses to our schedule (ask us!), or you could always ask about onsite Access training.
Versions covered	Access comes in two flavours: databases and web apps. We only teach the former. There are many reasons to avoid the latter; not least the fact that Microsoft are no longer supporting them.
Language taught	Access comes with two competing languages: macros and modules. Macros (confusingly) are nothing like the macros used in Excel - instead, they allow you to choose commands from a list. Modules, by contrast, allow you to write code in VBA within Access. We think Access macros are a really silly idea (they aren't as powerful as modules) so we only teach VBA.

If you imagine Access as a swimming pool, you can stay in the shallow end or swim through it to reach the deep end. Here's what this analogy means!

Pool end	What you'll learn	Course	Length
Shallow	How to create a relational database, including creating tables, entering data and linking tables together with relationships. You'll also learn how to create queries to extract data from tables.	Access Querying	1 day
Deep	All of the above, plus how to create forms and reports to build a user interface, including using VBA code to link everything together.	Access for Developers	3 days
Diving pool	Once you've learnt to swim, you might like to consider learning more about how to write VBA within Access (note that some of the content is repeated from the 3 day developers' course).	Access VBA	2 days

Although Microsoft sell Access as easy-to-use end-user software, it has many foibles, and you should put aside weeks rather than days to become proficient in using it. In particular, users of Excel can take a while to get used to the more structured approach to storing data that Access demands.

To see more details about our range of Access training courses, have a look at our more detailed Access help page.

10 things our Access courses include

Each of our scheduled courses includes:

Small course sizes - we have a maximum of 6 people on each course, and frequently run courses with fewer delegates.
A trainer! And not just anyone - our courses are only ever given by full-time Wise Owls (our average feedback scores are in the range 9.2 to 9.8 out of 10).
Full colour courseware and exercises of oustanding quality .
A no cancellation guarantee (once you've booked/confirmed training, it will run).
A computer for each delegate (obviously).
Lunch out each day at a local restaurant (chosen on the day of the course, after discussion!).
Unlimited refreshments during the day, including Tassimo or Nespresso coffee and a range of biscuits and snacks to keep you going through those dark afternoon hours.
A one gigabyte USB stick, containing course files, answers to exercises and (by the end of the course) your answers too, together with a Sheaffer biro.
Unofficial help after the course (although we don't have a dedicated post-course support line, in practice trainers will be happy to answer the odd ad hoc question after a course has taken place).
A certificate sent out digitally or in paper form (your choice) after each course, together with (for online courses) the trainer's thoughts on how the course went.

Have a look at our full list of benefits, or read hundreds of testimonials to the quality of our training.

About our Access training

It makes us sad that less people are booking Access training courses, because we've still got a soft spot for this versatile and powerful application. We've built many Access databases for clients in the past, and still use Access for (among other systems) the following areas of our business:

System	Notes
Accounts	Our bespoke accounts system uses an Access front end to get at data stored in SQL Server.
Expenses	Although we're in the process of creating a web front-end to our expenses system, at the moment it runs exclusively in Access.
CMS	Our website content management system uses an Access front-end, although the underlying tables are stored in SQL Server.

We're not sure why Access is falling out of corporate favour - book a course with us to fight the power of IT departments, who want to control everything centrally!