Microsoft Office Essentials

Microsoft Office Essentials is a 40 hour, self-paced online course that builds the software fluency every Canadian office job assumes you already have. Over five structured study days you learn to organize and protect files in Windows and OneDrive, produce correctly formatted documents in Word, build and audit working spreadsheets in Excel, design and deliver presentations in PowerPoint, and run a professional mailbox, calendar and shared workspace in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint.

The course is written in an institutional, textbook register and grounded in named sources: Microsoft Learn and Microsoft 365 product documentation, the Microsoft Office Specialist certification objectives, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium, Ontario accessibility law, and the Government of Canada Job Bank profiles for the administrative occupations these skills serve.

Twenty-five core lessons, five on each study day, each with its own five question quiz, are supported by fourteen purpose-drawn diagrams, selected free video viewing, a daily set of Canadian practice notes, instructor-graded laboratory exercises in the real applications, and a capstone project that produces a four-document portfolio piece.

No software purchase is required. Every laboratory exercise in this course can be completed with the free web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook at office.com using a free Microsoft account. Where a task needs the installed desktop application, the lesson says so and gives the web alternative.

This course is a short-term preview of ERICC’s office-based diploma programs, including Medical Office Administrator and Payroll and Accounting Administrator. Entry-level roles in this field are posted in Canada under National Occupational Classification code 13110, administrative assistants, and code 14100, general office support workers, both searchable on the Government of Canada Job Bank.