Data & AI Essentials
Data & AI Essentials Course: Master Excel, SQL, Python & Power BI with AI
A 6-week, practitioner-led data analytics short course covering Excel, SQL, Python, Pandas, Power BI and Tableau, with AI woven into every session so you work far faster. Built for working professionals who want to read, clean, analyse and visualise data with confidence, finishing with an iO-Sphere certificate of completion.
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What the course covers
Build, automate and report in Excel and Sheets, and do it fast.
Formulas, XLOOKUP, PivotTables, cleaning messy data. With AI to write formulas, explain errors, and suggest structure.
Query databases with SQL, without waiting for the data team.
SELECT, WHERE, JOIN, GROUP BY on real datasets, and AI that turns plain English into SQL and debugs it instantly.
Automate cleaning and analysis in Python and Pandas.
DataFrames, filtering, groupby, reusable cleaning pipelines. AI generates the boilerplate so you focus on the logic.
Build dashboards stakeholders actually use.
Power BI and Tableau from scratch: connect sources, model data, tell the story. AI suggests DAX, visuals and narrative.
Tell the story behind the numbers.
Present findings clearly to any audience. Use AI to draft commentary, sharpen headlines, and structure the narrative.
Use AI as a data co-pilot, responsibly.
Prompt patterns for data tasks, and the judgement to know when to verify AI output yourself. The skill that compounds.
Tools you'll work with
Is this for you?
You'll recognise yourself if:
- Business analysts who want to work faster and go deeper with data
- Operations, finance or marketing professionals upskilling where they are
- Career changers moving into a data role, no background needed
- Anyone who works with spreadsheets and wants to go much further
Curriculum
Two 2-hour live sessions a week · evenings
- Foundations
Data Fundamentals + Excel / Sheets Mastery
Types of data, reading tables, basic stats. XLOOKUP, PivotTables, IF/SUMIF, cleaning messy datasets. AI writes formulas from plain English and explains errors from session one.
You walk away with: A cleaned dataset with PivotTables you can explain.
- Foundations
SQL Foundations
SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY and JOINs on real datasets. Understanding relational databases. AI drafts your first queries. You learn the logic, AI handles the syntax.
You walk away with: Your first SQL queries producing real answers from a real database.
- Foundations
SQL → Pandas Bridge
Introduction to Python and Pandas. DataFrames, filtering, groupby. Translate SQL logic into Python so you move fluidly between tools. AI converts queries and explains unfamiliar functions.
You walk away with: The same analysis, done in both SQL and Python.
- Build
Data Cleaning in Pandas
Nulls, deduplication, type casting. Real-world project: clean a messy CSV from scratch and build a reusable pipeline. AI suggests the cleaning plan; you refine it.
You walk away with: A reusable, end-to-end cleaning pipeline on real data.
- Build
Power BI: Basics to Storytelling
Connect sources, build visuals, DAX basics, dashboard design. From first visual to a finished interactive report. AI generates DAX, suggests chart types, and drafts the narrative.
You walk away with: A working dashboard wired to live data.
- Capstone
BI Tools Workshop + AI-Powered Capstone
Tableau and Power BI workshops. Consolidate everything into a capstone: raw data → interactive dashboard → stakeholder narrative, with AI as your co-pilot and coaches challenging you to improve on its output.
You walk away with: A finished capstone dashboard ready to show at your next review.
How you'll practise
Bring your own work data where you can. That's where this gets useful fastest. Where you can't (sensitive, NDA'd, or just not relevant), we give you access to PRISM, iO-Sphere's simulation platform built on real business data, used by our enterprise clients.
Be the person on your team who turns a spreadsheet into a decision.
Plus an iO-Sphere certificate of completion, yours to keep and add to your CV.
Common questions
Do I need any prior experience?
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No prior data or coding experience required. If you can use a spreadsheet, you're ready. We take you from there.
What data skills will I learn on this course?
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You'll learn the core data analyst toolkit end to end: spreadsheet analysis in Excel and Google Sheets, querying databases with SQL, automating analysis with Python and Pandas, and building interactive dashboards in Power BI and Tableau. Every week also shows you how to use AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) to do each of these faster, writing formulas, drafting SQL, generating cleaning code and suggesting visualisations.
Is this a data analytics course or a data science course?
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It's a practical data analytics and data fluency course. The focus is on the skills professionals use every day to turn raw data into decisions: querying, cleaning, analysing and visualising, rather than machine learning or statistical modelling. If you want to confidently work with data in a business role, this is the right level.
Do I need to know how to code to learn SQL and Python?
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No. The course assumes you can use a spreadsheet and takes you from there. You'll write real SQL and Python, but you learn the logic step by step, with AI as a co-pilot for syntax. Most learners are surprised how quickly they're producing working queries and scripts.
How is AI used throughout the course?
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AI is built into every week, not bolted on as a separate module. You'll use ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot to write Excel formulas from plain English, draft and debug SQL, generate Pandas cleaning code, and produce DAX and dashboard narratives in Power BI, then learn the judgement to verify and improve on what the AI gives you.
Will I get a certificate?
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Yes, an iO-Sphere certificate of completion to add to your CV and LinkedIn. More importantly, you finish with a portfolio dashboard built on real data that you can show at your next review.
Register your interest
Leave your details and we'll get in touch when the next cohort is confirmed.
Training a team?
We build data and AI programmes around your organisation's work: practical fluency training for the team, and deeper development for the people who lead the change.