Python training courses
This page is full of training resources to help you to learn to program in Python quickly and efficiently.
Python classroom training
We currently run the following classroom training courses in Python:
See details of our classroom training, or why not organise your own onsite Python course?
Online Python training
We have the following online Python training courses available:
Or see how our online courses work (probably better than you think!).
Which is the right Python course for you?
We try really hard in our three-day Introduction to Python course (classroom or online) to make everything as relevant as possible, but at the end of the day you are going to have to learn the following important foundation concepts in Python:
| Concept | Notes |
|---|---|
| IDE | You need to choose and become familiar with a coding environment (we use Visual Studio Code for all of our Python training courses). |
| Virtual environments | If you're going to be doing any serious programming, you need to understand how to create sandboxes for your applications. |
| Sequences | If there's one vital thing to learn in Python it's how to work with tuples and lists, and in particular how to loop over them (and how to create and use something called list comprehensions). |
| Slicing | Python makes it easy to pick out the items you want from any collection of things using something called slicing; it's a powerful technique, but it takes a bit of getting used to. |
| Files and folders | You'll need to learn how to read and write to and from text, CSV and other files in Python. |
| Sets and dictionaries | You need to become familiar with these two ways of holding blocks of data. |
| Functions | You can't write anything but the simplest programs in Python if you don't know how to pass arguments to functions. |
Once you've learnt the basics you can go on to do all the things you want to do in Python, such as manipulating Excel data, creating arrays in numpy or working with dataframes in pandas.
Here's the sort of code you'll learn how to write on one of our Python courses:
# test status
if response.status_code != 200:
# print error message
print("No URL found")
exit()
lines = response.text.splitlines()
# loop over the lines printing them out
for line in lines:
# trim this line
trimmed_line = line.strip()
# is this a hyperlink?
if hyperlink_tag in trimmed_line: in trimmed_line:
print(trimmed_line)
This particular program would use the requests module to get the response from a website (this bit of code is omitted above) and print out the hyperlinks in it.
10 things our Python courses include
Each of our scheduled courses (whether classroom or online) includes:
- Small course sizes - we have a maximum of 6 people on each classroom or online course.
- A trainer! And not just anyone - our courses are only ever given by full-time Wise Owls.
- Full colour courseware and exercises of oustanding quality.
- A no cancellation guarantee (once you've booked and confirmed your training course, it will run).
- A one gigabyte USB stick, containing course files, answers to exercises and (by the end of the course) your answers too, together with a nice pen.
- 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 tailored courses) the trainer's thoughts on how the course went.
In addition, our classroom courses also include:
- 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.
Still not convinced? You can read hundreds of testimonials to the quality of our training (all attributed and added in the last 3 years.
About our Python training
Is Python for you? If you're an existing programmer, you might like to read this (slightly biased) article comparing the two languages.
Other Python training resources
There are many ways in which we can help you learn Python, as the list below shows.
Try our Python exercises
You can test your Python skills by trying one of our online exercises.
Python training venues
We run Python courses in the following venues (as well as onsite at your premises).
Blogs on Python
We have the following Python blogs to read.
Python courseware manuals
You can see some sample courseware chapters below.
Videos on Python
We've got the following Python tutorial videos.
Test your Python skills
See how your Python skills compare with others by taking one of these tests.