Online Training

Python Programming

Live online training course - classroom version also available

£1,295 + 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)
05-07 Oct	09:30-16:30	£1,295	Book
09-11 Nov	09:30-16:30	£1,295	Book
15-17 Feb	09:30-16:30	£1,295	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 5 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
549 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):

"Experienced, friendly & approachable trainer, constantly checking if every one okay and good. Content appropriate. Small class, everyone got enough attention. Delivery; right speed, not too fast/slow. Unlimited supply of tea/coffee/biscuits. Colleagues recommendation."

Kin Chung Ow (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG))

"The course was really good, our trainer is an extremely friendly and knowledgeable person who made me feel comfortable when asking questions."

Nicola Mills (Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA))

"Fab course, straight to the point, good pace. Trainer is likeable, approachable and knowledgeable."

Samantha Briggs (Lex)

"Great delivery of course, very knowledgeable and very helpful. This is the second course I have been on in the last 3 months, both have helped me enormously. Thank you!"

Deanne Yates (Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust)

"I really enjoyed this course. I've done a number of courses over the years (not Wise Owl Training and not PBI), but this was head and shoulders above the others. It might be that I was interested in learning about the topic, but the whole experience was seamless. The pre-course IT check was an important detail (I did a course the previous week with another provider and this beset with IT issues upon starting). Using the remote desktop meant I had easy access to the data and the trainer could see when I did something wrong. The trainer was also very good. I'd actually be happy to do another online course again (even after Covid) - I didn't feel like I lost anything by doing it this way. It was booked for me - but I'm glad the person who booked it, chose Wise Owl."

Stuart Andrews (Valuation Office Agency)

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:

A computer (obviously) running Windows.
A good internet connection.
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 Sheaffer 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.