Certificate programme
Productivity Tools (Teams, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365)
Productivity tools are installed everywhere these days, and yet very few people use them to anything like their potential. We still exchange attachments by email when file sharing exists, we hold meetings with no agenda and no automatic minutes, we spend ten minutes looking for a document a colleague sent last month, and three of us work on three different versions of the same spreadsheet. The problem is almost never the software; it is the method. This certified programme covers the two environments that organisations in Burkina Faso actually use: Microsoft 365, with Teams, Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint, and Google Workspace, with Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet and Forms. Both are taught, for a simple reason: professionals change employers, work with partners, and must be comfortable in either. Being able to move from one ecosystem to the other has become a skill in itself. The training is built around work situations rather than menus. Organising your mail and your calendar, keeping a team space alive, co-writing a document without creating duplicates, running a remote meeting that produces decisions, collecting information through a form, finding a file in fifteen seconds, protecting what needs protecting. Each notion is demonstrated, then immediately reproduced by the participant on their own machine. The programme ends with an individual project: each participant sets up the full digital organisation of their department or their business, then presents it to the group. That project is what determines the award of the certificate.
- Duration
- 3 weeks, 6 sessions, 30 hours
- Format
- In person or online
- Credential
- Training certificate
Tuition110,000 XOF
By the end of the programme, you will be able to
- Tell the two ecosystems apart, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and work confidently in each
- Organise your online storage: folder structure, naming, sharing and access rights
- Sort your mailbox and keep your calendar: rules, invitations, availability
- Create and run a team space in Teams, and hold a remote meeting in it
- Co-write a document, a spreadsheet or a presentation with others
- Build a collection form and work with its responses in a spreadsheet
- Set up a task board for the team
Who it is for
Target audience
The course is for anyone whose work rests on a computer and on collaboration: executive assistants and secretaries, project officers, monitoring and evaluation officers, communications officers, human resources managers, administrative and finance managers, teachers, sales staff, entrepreneurs and civil servants.
Prerequisites
Three requirements:
- Be able to use a computer day to day: keyboard, mouse, files and folders, web browser, email
- Have a laptop, Windows or macOS alike, and bring your phone
- Have an active email address and be able to create the accounts the exercises need
No prior knowledge of Teams, SharePoint or Google Workspace is required. The course suits someone who has never moved beyond email attachments as much as someone already using one of the two environments who wants to make real use of it.
Teaching method
The course runs over three weeks: two sessions a week, six five-hour sessions and 30 supervised hours. Sessions are held on Saturday and Sunday, from 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. Personal work takes two to three hours a week.
The format is hybrid: theory and demonstrations come as video capsules, watched remotely before each session — an hour to an hour and a half, at any time — and the sessions are spent working at the computer. The course can be followed in person in Ouagadougou, entirely online, or alternating, at the same price. The cohort is limited to fifteen.
The course is built around work situations rather than menus: organising your mail and calendar, keeping a team space alive, co-writing a document without creating duplicates, running a remote meeting that produces decisions, collecting information through a form, finding a file in fifteen seconds, protecting what needs protecting. Both environments are taught, for a simple reason: professionals change employers, work with partners, and must be at ease in either.
Accounts and licences, stated plainly: Google Workspace has a free account that covers the great majority of what is taught — Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms and Meet; shared Drives and some administration features belong to a paid plan. Microsoft 365 offers Teams and the online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on a free plan, while SharePoint, Power Automate and the installed applications require a subscription. No subscription is required of participants: the paid features are demonstrated on Waaldé Impact's accounts, and free trials are activated for the duration of the course. The licence options, their costs and the offers for associations and schools are presented, so that everyone knows exactly what to ask their organisation for.
Workstation: a laptop running Windows 10 or later, or macOS, at least 4 GB of RAM, a recent browser and an internet connection. Each participant also brings their phone from the first session, since the mobile side is covered in class.
Every participant leaves with:
- The complete course material in PDF, session by session, for both ecosystems, and the video capsules
- A Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace comparison guide, feature by feature
- A set of templates ready to adapt: report, meeting minutes, task tracker, collection form
- A departmental digital charter template, to complete
- A checklist for setting up a team space
- A cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts and search tricks for both environments
- A step-by-step procedure for migrating from one ecosystem to the other
Detailed program
6 sessions · 30 h of teaching
Week 1 — Getting organised with Microsoft 365
2 sessions · 10 h- Remotely, before the session (about 1 h 15): capsules on Microsoft 365 plans and licences, the portal, OneDrive sync, file and folder sharing
- Sign in to the portal, find your applications and pin the ones you use daily
- Build a folder structure live and apply a shared naming rule
- Sync OneDrive on your machine and read the file status icons
- Share the same folder read-only, then editable, then by an expiring link
- Exercise: upload and organise your department's real documents, on your own account
- Going further, in the course material: education licences, version history, recovering a deleted file, working offline
- Remotely, before the session (about 1 h 15): capsules on sorting the inbox, rules, the calendar and availability, tasks
- Work through a crowded inbox with the do, delegate, file, defer method
- Create three sorting rules and test them on real messages
- Write a signature and two template replies, then insert them in a message
- Create an event with guests, check availability and propose a slot
- Exercise: overhaul your own inbox and set three sorting rules
- Going further, in the course material: out-of-office replies, mailbox delegation, resource calendars, time zones, distribution lists
Week 2 — Working as a team with Teams
2 sessions · 10 h- Open a Word document online and compare what the online version allows with the desktop one
- Co-edit an Excel spreadsheet online in pairs: shared entry, filters, comment with a mention
- Create a Teams team for a real project, invite the members, tell owner from member
- Create channels by topic and reply in a thread rather than starting a new message
- Exercise: create your department's team, with two channels, and move an email discussion into it
- Going further, in the course material: track changes, comparing two versions, private and shared channels, mobile apps
- Schedule a meeting from Outlook with an agenda, then set the lobby and the presenters
- Run a ten-minute meeting in groups of three, each person holding a defined role
- Write a record of decisions: who does what, by when, where it is filed
- Create a Planner task board, assign work, set deadlines and read the per-person view
- Exercise: call a real meeting of your team and produce its record of decisions
- Going further, in the course material: SharePoint and document libraries, tabs, OneNote, Microsoft Lists, approvals, archiving a team
Week 3 — Collaborating with Google Workspace
2 sessions · 10 h- Tell a personal account from a Workspace account, then create the trial accounts for the course
- Set up labels, filters and scheduled send in Gmail
- Create a team calendar and a shared resource, then book a room
- Organise a department shared Drive with read and edit permissions
- Exercise: build your own department's shared Drive, with its access rights
- Going further, in the course material: canned responses, appointment slots, the bin, scanning from a phone, offline access
- Structure a report in Docs: styles, outline, automatic table of contents, comments
- Co-edit a monitoring spreadsheet: common formulas, data validation, protecting a range
- Build a collection form with required fields and conditional logic
- Link the form to a spreadsheet and work with the responses as they arrive
- Exercise: set up a real collection, from the form to the tracking table, and present it in a Meet call
- Going further, in the course material: pivot tables, Slides in presenter mode, Google Groups, Google Sites, Keep and Tasks
Assessment and certification
This programme leads to a training certificate, not a simple attendance slip. It is awarded on an admission average out of 20, made up of three components:
- The certification exam (50%) — 25 questions drawn at random from a bank of more than eighty, in 60 minutes. Two attempts are allowed, seven days apart, and the better one counts.
- The digital organisation project (30%) — presented in the sixth session.
- Attendance (20%) — recorded session by session. An absence announced at least three days in advance counts as half; an unannounced absence does not count.
The admission average is 12 out of 20. A mark below 8 out of 20 in the exam is eliminatory: neither the project nor attendance can make up for it. As soon as the average is reached, the certificate is issued automatically and becomes available in the participant's account.
The certificate is issued by Waaldé Impact, signed by the trainer, and states the course title, the 30 hours, the period, the list of modules completed and the subject of the digital organisation project presented. Each certificate carries a unique number and a verification code.
Participants who do not reach the average receive a certificate of attendance. They may retake the exam and present their digital organisation project with the following cohort, at no extra cost.
Each participant also receives:
- The full course material as a PDF, organised session by session, for both ecosystems
- A feature-by-feature comparison guide of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
- A set of ready-to-adapt templates: report, meeting minutes, task tracker, collection form
- A cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts and search tricks for both environments
- A step-by-step procedure for migrating from one ecosystem to the other
Upcoming sessions
Next dates being prepared
Leave your email: we will let you know as soon as registration opens.
Frequently asked questions
110,000 XOF per participant. Training for a team or an organisation is quoted on request.
3 weeks, 6 sessions, 30 hours.
Yes: you can attend onsite or online, as you prefer.
Three requirements: be able to use a computer day to day: keyboard, mouse, files and folders, web browser, email ; have a laptop, Windows or macOS alike, and bring your phone ; have an active email address and be able to create the accounts the exercises need ; no prior knowledge of Teams, SharePoint or Google Workspace is required. The course suits someone who has never moved beyond email attachments as much as someone already using one of the two environments who wants to make real use of it.
Yes: participants who meet the completion requirements receive a Waaldé Impact certificate with a unique number that employers can verify online.
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.
Join the next cohort
Cohorts are deliberately small to guarantee genuine individual support. Reserve your place or ask us your questions.