WiseOwl Training - Established 1992 Wise Owl Training

Established May 1992
30 years in business Wise Owl Training
30 years in business
See 519 reviews for our classroom and online training
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Average score 9.41/10, based on our 1,807 latest reviews
Classroom training - Python programming

Online Training

Python Programming

Live online training course - classroom version also available

£995 + VAT (where applicable)

Three days (09:30 to 16:30 UK time each day)

If you work with data, the chances are that you'll have heard of Python.  You can use this versatile language to interrogate databases, scrape websites, produce statistical analysis of data ... and so much more. 

This three-day course lets you find out what you've been missing.  You'll learn not just how to write Python code but how to write good Python code (our trainers have many years of experience of building systems in VB, C#, SQL and other languages).  Starting with the foundations of any programming language (such as variables, conditions and loops), you'll quickly move on to as many real-life examples as we can squeeze into the time available, using the powerful (and freely available) Visual Studio Code as an integrated development environment.

Course schedule

Here are our next few online Python programming course dates:

Dates Times Price (excl. VAT)
19-21 Jul 09:30-16:30 £995 Book
26-28 Sep 09:30-16:30 £995 Book
23-25 Nov 09:30-16:30 £995 Book
Show full list of dates

Got a handful of like-minded people in your organisation? You could consider creating your own customised online course to run on a date convenient to you).

Course Contents

The contents of this course are as follows:

Getting started

  • Installing Python
  • Getting started using IDLE

Basic coding

  • Python variables
  • Testing conditions
  • Printing and f-strings

Visual Studio Code

  • Installing with extensions
  • Configuring settings
  • Useful short-cuts

Running and debugging

  • The code runner extension
  • Stepping through code
  • Setting breakpoints

Ranges and loops

  • WHILE loops
  • Breaking out of loops
  • Ranges of numbers

Virtual environments

  • Why you need a virtual environment
  • The VENV command
  • Activating virtual environments

Working with modules

  • Installing modules using PIP
  • System modules (OS and SYS)
  • Maths functions (MATH)

Sequences

  • Tuples versus lists
  • Iterating over sequences
  • Slicing sequences
  • Joining and splitting

Manipulating lists

  • Adding/removing items
  • Sorting lists
  • Shallow and deep copies

Files and folders

  • Reading and writing
  • Using WITH
  • Looping over lines
  • Looping over folders using GLOB

Error handling

  • The try clause
  • Handling exceptions

Working with data types

  • Manipulating strings
  • Numbers and Booleans
  • The DATETIME module

Working with sets

  • Sets versus lists
  • Examples of set use

Dictionaries

  • Key/value pairs
  • Retrieving items

Functions

  • Defining functions
  • Passing arguments
  • Optional arguments
  • Modular programming

Scraping websites

  • Understanding HTML
  • The REQUESTS module
  • Using BeautifulSoup

Comprehensions

  • List comprehensions
  • Generators

CSV and Excel

  • Reading and writing CSV files
  • Using OPENPYXL
  • Workbooks, worksheets and cells

Covered if time allows If time

Working with JSON

  • The JSON module
  • Loading and dumping data

Covered if time allows If time

Working with databases

  • The PYODBC module
  • Connections and cursors

Covered if time allows If time

Overview of Tkinter

  • Creating windows
  • Drawing forms with widgets
  • Assigning events

Overview of NUMPY

  • Arrays and shapes
  • Filling arrays
  • Slicing arrays
  • Array operations

Overview of Pandas

  • Dataframes and series
  • Reading/writing dataframes
  • Dataframe calculations
  • A look at matplotlib

Covered if time allows If time

Power BI and Python

  • Getting Python data
  • Python visuals using dataframes

You can download a PDF file giving the course contents.

Benefits of our online training

Here are some reasons to choose Wise Owl online courses:

  • Maximum of 6 people per class
  • Excellent colour courseware manual posted to you in advance
  • Pre-course set-up included in the days before the course
  • No need to install any software on your computer
  • All courses given by one of our 6 Wise Owl trainers
  • 519 references viewable online

What other people have said

Many thanks to those listed below for kindly agreeing to let us use their names. All of the reviews are from the last 3 calendar years (although some may be for classroom courses):

"Excellent course, very informative and run smoothly. The trainer was interesting and engaging. Hope I end up needing some more training soon! My boss loves you guys."

Jack Tildsley (Derby and Burton Hospitals NHS FT)

"Our trainer kept checking in on everyone at breaks and beginnings to make sure no one had gotten lost along the way. He was very open to questions and answered them clearly. It was good to get us thinking when asking us what we thought might happen if he ran a code, and then teaching us that a statement only affects the next statement. Colleagues recommended the training to me as they found it a very thorough exploration of SQL."

Simon Wickham (Advancing Quality Alliance AQuA)

"I was pleasantly surprised with the virtual training as I have always preferred classroom teaching and also very happy with the course. It was very hands on, which I appreciated more that just being talked to. I was impressed with my instructor too. He was very engaging. I liked the course content."

Folakemi Ayoade (Bank of England)

"Really good digestible guidance. The supporting documentation makes it easier to absorb the information given over the course. Well established company and structure. Flexibility of home learning during Covid. My company approved too."

Paul Willis (Amoria Bond)

"Very good course tailored to our specific requirements."

Mike Hughes (Cheshire East Council)

Refresh the page to see a different set of reviews!

How our live online training courses work

We've published a full summary of what it's like to attend a Wise Owl course online - here are the main things you need to know.

What you'll need

You'll need three things for the course:

  1. A computer (obviously) running Windows.
  2. A good internet connection.
  3. A microphone and (ideally) webcam.

In addition you'll find the course very difficult without an additional monitor (so that you can participate in the course on one screen, and use the software you're learning on the other).

What will happen when you book a place

Within a few hours of your booking a place on one of our online courses, we'll be in touch to get you set up correctly.  This usually takes about half an hour, and can be done at any mutually convenient date/time.

A few days before your course begins you'll receive a parcel in the post (free for UK bookings) containing:

  • A full colour courseware manual;
  • An exercise booklet to go with the course; and
  • A USB stick containing the files for the course, should you need a back-up.

Your parcel will even include a Wise Owl biro (they're good; trust us) and pad.

What you won't need

You won't need to install any software at all on your computer.  This is because:

  • you'll use Windows Remote Desktop to connect to our computers, and these will have all of the necessary files and software installed; and
  • we use Teams for our online training, which you can run through most modern browsers.
On and after the course

On the day of the course itself you will be able to join the course up to half an hour before it begins. This will give you time to:

  • familiarise yourself with the set-up;
  • meet your trainer; and
  • get to know the other delegates!

After the course finishes you'll receive an electronic certificate proving your attendance (we will gladly send a paper copy on request also).

You can see full details of exactly how our online courses work here.