Read our blogs, tips and tutorials
Try our exercises or test your skills
Watch our tutorial videos or shorts
Take a self-paced course
Read our recent newsletters
License our courseware
Book expert consultancy
Buy our publications
Get help in using our site
551 attributed reviews in the last 3 years
Refreshingly small course sizes
Outstandingly good courseware
Whizzy online classrooms
Wise Owl trainers only (no freelancers)
Almost no cancellations
We have genuine integrity
We invoice after training
Review 30+ years of Wise Owl
View our top 100 clients
Search our website
We also send out useful tips in a monthly email newsletter ...
View our live online and classroom programming training courses in Python, C#, SQL, Office Scripts and VBA - learn to program in small classes (maximum 6 people).
We currently run the following scheduled Programming courses:
We like programming! To help you choose which language to learn, we've included a quick guide below. To avoid any bias, the languages are listed in alphabetical order.
Language | When and why you would use it |
---|---|
C# | Visual C# allows you to build websites and forms-based systems in .NET. |
Office Scripts | The new way to automate Excel (and presumably in the future other Microsoft applications) using a language based upon TypeScript. |
Python | An increasingly popular language used to manipulate data, scrape websites, analyse statistics and much more besides. |
SQL | SQL allows you to extract information from SQL Server databases, and then manipulate it. |
VBA | Visual Basic for Applications is the language included in Microsoft Office, and allows you to automate Excel, Access and other programs. |
Here are the main courses that we teach in each language:
Language | Main courses |
---|---|
C# | |
Office Scripts | Introduction to Office Scripts (2 days) |
Python | |
SQL | |
VBA |
If you're not a specialist programmer, you'll probably want to avoid learning Python or C#, but becoming proficient in Office Scripts, SQL or VBA may well make you able to do day-to-day tasks more quickly, without needing to resort to getting help from your (busy) IT department all the time.
Whichever language you choose, you'll have to master the same core concepts:
Concept | Explanation |
---|---|
Variables | Variables are places in which you can store single items of data, such as integers, dates and bits of text. |
Conditions | At the heart of programming is the ability to test a condition, to see which execution path to follow. |
Loops | Also at the heart of programming is the ability to repeat a series of steps a number of times, perhaps while a particular condition is true. |
Note, however, that you won't encounter the above if you stick to learning the basics of SQL only.
Each of our scheduled courses (whether classroom or online) includes:
In addition, our classroom courses also include:
Still not convinced? You can read hundreds of testimonials to the quality of our training (all attributed and added in the last 3 years.
Here are the next Programming courses we have scheduled:
Course | Dates | Venue |
---|---|---|
Excel VBA macros | 14-15 Nov | Online |
Advanced SQL | 19-20 Nov | London |
Advanced SQL | 21-22 Nov | Online |
Fast track SQL | 27-29 Nov | Online |
Introduction to Python | 02-03 Dec | Online |
Fast track Python | 02-04 Dec | Online |
Advanced VBA | 05-06 Dec | Online |
Introduction to SQL | 05-06 Dec | Online |
Introduction to Visual C# | 05-06 Dec | Online |
Intermediate C# | 05-06 Dec | Online |
All prices exclude VAT. If you can't see the dates you want, don't forget that you always have the option of arranging onsite training at your offices (we'll even provide the computers and projector).
Programming has come on over the years, but the essential principles remain the same (in virtually every language you create variables, test conditions and iterate over loops). To show the evolution of programming over the decades, here are the languages learnt by the oldest of the Wise Owls:
Decade | Main language learnt | Notes |
---|---|---|
1980s | Fortran | In early Fortran you had to colour in shapes on punch cards with a 2B pencil! How times have changed ... |
1990s | VBA | The 1990s saw Microsoft roll out Visual Basic for Applications across all of the MIcrosoft Office product range; it's still going strong today. |
2000s | SQL | T-SQL is the dialect of SQL used for extracting data from SQL Server. |
2010s | C# | C, C++, Java and JavaScript are all variants of C#. |
2020s | Python | The up-and-coming language, Python allows you to write more concise code and supports lots of additional libraries. |
2030s? | ? | What will be the language we will be writing in the AI era? |
We don't train in Fortran (thank goodness), but we do still train in the languages from the other decades.
There are many ways in which we can help you learn Programming!
Whether you're learning to program in SQL, Office Scripts, Python, VBA or C#, we'll have written a blog to help you.
You can teach yourself how to program in Visual Basic for Applications by following this online tutorial.
Our videos can help you to learn to program in SQL, VBA, C# or DAX.
We've published the following programming shorts.
Our scheduled programming courses run in the following venues.
Test your programming skills using one of these categories.
If you're teaching yourself VBA, we've also published our own book.
Kingsmoor House
Railway Street
GLOSSOP
SK13 2AA
Landmark Offices
99 Bishopsgate
LONDON
EC2M 3XD
Holiday Inn
25 Aytoun Street
MANCHESTER
M1 3AE
© Wise Owl Business Solutions Ltd 2024. All Rights Reserved.