Short course
Google Workspace
Google Workspace has become the default working environment for a large share of African organisations, and for good reasons: the tools can be used from any device, they work on modest connections, they need no installation, and most of it is free with a simple Google account.
- Duration
- 2 weeks, 6 sessions, 20 hours
- Format
- In person or online
- Credential
- Certificate of attendance
Tuition60,000 XOF
By the end of the programme, you will be able to
- Master Gmail: organisation, labels, filters, search, signature and templates
- Manage your calendar, schedule meetings and share your availability with Google Calendar
- Organise, share and secure your files in Google Drive
- Write and co-write a professional document in Google Docs, with comments and suggestions
- Build, calculate and analyse data in Google Sheets, including with pivot tables
- Design a polished presentation and deliver it with Google Slides
- Create a data collection form with Google Forms and use the responses automatically
- Organise and run a remote meeting with Google Meet
- Work together on the same file in real time, and manage access rights properly
- Work offline and synchronise when reconnecting
Who it is for
Target audience
The course is for anyone who works in a team: administrative staff, project officers, field staff, teachers, associations, entrepreneurs, students. It is particularly suited to small organisations looking for a complete working environment without a software budget.
Prerequisites
Only two requirements:
- Be able to use a computer in daily life and browse the internet
- Have a laptop and a Google account, created free of charge during the first session if necessary
No prior knowledge of Google tools is required. Previous experience of Word or Excel is an advantage but not essential: similarities and differences between the two worlds are pointed out as the course goes along.
Detailed program
6 sessions · 20 h of teaching
Week 1 — Communication, organisation and documents
3 sessions · 10 h- What a Google account is and which services it opens up
- Creating or securing your account, strong password and two-step verification
- The app launcher and moving between services
- Gmail: the interface, tabs, reading pane, display modes
- Reading, replying, forwarding, and the correct use of the Cc and Bcc fields
- Labels, the flexible equivalent of folders, and archiving rather than deleting
- Automatic filters: sorting, labelling, archiving without intervention
- Gmail search and its operators, which find anything in seconds
- Signatures, message templates, the out-of-office auto-reply
- Scheduled sending and undo send
- Google Calendar: creating an event, a recurring event, a reminder
- Inviting participants, managing responses, attaching a document to the invitation
- Creating several calendars, colour-coding them, sharing them with a chosen level of detail
- Checking a colleague's availability and finding a common slot
- Guided exercise: clean up a Gmail inbox and plan a complete working week
- Google Drive: storage space, its organisation, its free capacity
- Creating folders, uploading files, converting an Office file to Google format
- The difference between an uploaded file and a native file, and its consequences
- Searching in Drive, including within the content of documents
- Sharing: by link or by address, and the viewer, commenter and editor levels
- The most common sharing mistakes and how to avoid them
- Shared drives for teams and how they differ from a shared folder
- Version history, restoring an earlier state, understanding who changed what
- Google Docs: writing, formatting, using heading styles
- The automatic table of contents and the document outline
- Inserting images, tables, links, footnotes
- Suggesting mode, the equivalent of track changes
- Commenting, replying to a comment, assigning a task to someone in a comment
- Live co-writing: seeing other people's cursors, avoiding collisions
- Exporting to Word or PDF, and printing properly
- Guided exercise: three people write meeting minutes together in real time
- The Sheets interface and how it differs from Excel
- Entering, copying and formatting data, freezing header rows
- Number, date and currency formats, and custom formats
- Basic formulas and relative and absolute references
- Essential functions: SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, MAX, IF, SUMIF, COUNTIF
- Lookups with VLOOKUP and with INDEX and MATCH
- Sheets-specific functions: QUERY, IMPORTRANGE, UNIQUE, FILTER, ARRAYFORMULA
- Automatically importing data from another sheet or workbook
- Sorting and filtering, and filter views that do not disturb other users
- Data validation and drop-down lists
- Conditional formatting, including with formulas
- Pivot tables in Sheets
- Charts and publishing them on the web
- Protecting a range or a sheet while leaving the rest editable
- Collaborating on the same workbook without getting in each other's way
- Guided exercise: build a shared, filterable activity tracking table as a group
Week 2 — Presentation, data collection, remote meetings and automation
3 sessions · 10 h- Creating a presentation, choosing a theme, understanding the role of the slide master
- Layouts and why elements should not be placed by hand
- Text: hierarchy, readability, maximum amount per slide
- Inserting images, shapes, icons, tables and charts linked to Sheets
- The linked chart that updates when the data changes
- Transitions and animations, and why they should be used sparingly
- Speaker notes and presenter view
- Presenting remotely and presenting in a room
- Live Q&A with the audience
- Building a presentation together and sharing out the slides
- Publishing a presentation on the web or exporting it to PowerPoint and PDF
- Design principles: one idea per slide, contrast, alignment, simplicity
- Guided exercise: build a ten-slide project presentation as a group
- Google Forms: what a form is for and when it replaces paper-based collection
- Creating a form, structuring sections, writing clear questions
- Question types: single choice, multiple choice, drop-down, scale, grid, date, file
- Required questions and response validation
- Conditional logic: routing respondents according to their answers
- Customising the appearance and the confirmation message
- Quiz mode, useful in training and assessment
- Sharing a form by link, email or QR code
- Following responses live and reading the summary charts
- Automatically sending responses to a Sheets spreadsheet and using them
- The limits of a Google form compared with a real field data collection platform
- Google Meet: starting or scheduling a meeting from Calendar or Gmail
- Inviting and admitting participants, managing the waiting room
- Sharing your screen, a window or a tab, and sharing with sound
- The whiteboard, chat, reactions, raising hands
- Recording a meeting and finding the recording in Drive
- Breakout rooms and polls
- Adjusting video quality to a weak connection
- Guided exercise: create a complete registration form and run a Meet meeting
- Google Keep for quick notes and shared lists
- Google Tasks and its integration with Gmail and Calendar
- Google Chat and team spaces
- Google Sites to publish a simple internal page, without coding
- Organising a team's workspace: Drive folder structure, naming conventions, rights
- Managing rights over time: who keeps access to what when someone leaves
- Working offline in Docs, Sheets and Slides, then synchronising
- Google mobile apps on Android and iOS
- Backing up and syncing your files between your computer and Drive
- Account security: two-step verification, connected devices, authorised apps
- Recovering a deleted file and restoring an earlier version
- What the free version does not allow, and what a professional Workspace subscription adds
- Group application: the group sets up the complete digital workspace for a fictitious project, with a data collection form, tracking sheet, report document, presentation and feedback meeting
- The trainer moves between workstations throughout the session
- Final summary: the method for moving an entire team to this way of working
Assessment and certification
There is no final assessment. A training attestation is given to each participant at the end of the sixth session, issued by Waaldé Impact and signed by the trainer, stating the course title, the 20-hour duration, the dates and the list of tools covered.
Upcoming sessions
Next dates being prepared
Leave your email: we will let you know as soon as registration opens.
Frequently asked questions
60,000 XOF per participant. Training for a team or an organisation is quoted on request.
2 weeks, 6 sessions, 20 hours.
Yes: you can attend onsite or online, as you prefer.
Only two requirements: be able to use a computer in daily life and browse the internet ; have a laptop and a Google account, created free of charge during the first session if necessary ; no prior knowledge of Google tools is required. Previous experience of Word or Excel is an advantage but not essential: similarities and differences between the two worlds are pointed out as the course goes along.
A certificate of attendance is issued at the end of the course.
Fill in the online enrolment request: no payment is taken on the site. The firm reviews your application, then contacts you to confirm your place and the payment terms. No session is scheduled yet: leave your email on this page to be told when registration opens.
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Cohorts are deliberately small to guarantee genuine individual support. Reserve your place or ask us your questions.