Gain insight into sound business strategy through data analysis, a key component to problem-solving and decision-making within a mission-critical organization. Develop a strong foundation in data analysis techniques, including analytical techniques, data preparation, integration, statistical analysis, and presentation skills. Working collaboratively through real-world scenarios using Microsoft Excel, you’ll be prepared to perform the most relevant, mission-critical analyses.

Develop a strong foundation in data analysis techniques to gain insight into sound business strategy, an insight critical to problem-solving and decision-making within your organization. You will learn numerous analytical techniques, including data validation and conditioning, probability distribution statistical analysis, and how to store data to maintain data integrity. Working collaboratively through real-world scenarios using Microsoft Excel, you’ll be prepared to perform the most relevant, mission-critical analyses.

Unlock key skills in Microsoft Excel to develop a strong foundation in data analysis techniques, including numerous analytical techniques, data preparation, integration, and charting skills. Learn to use data to gain insight into sound business strategy, a key component in problem-solving and decision-making within a mission-critical organization. Working collaboratively through real-world scenarios using Microsoft Excel, you’ll be prepared to perform the most relevant, mission-critical analyses for your organization.

Discover how to utilize Microsoft Excel for benefit-cost analysis to organize facts, assumptions, estimates, and findings to align your decisions with your organization’s goals and mission. You will learn to conduct accurate benefit-cost analyses in Microsoft Excel using fundamental principles, best practices, and powerful tools.

Challenge yourself to overcome common barriers and transform your thinking by engaging in problem solving designed to explore alternative perspectives and novel solutions. The concepts presented in Breakthrough Problem Solving are a logical follow-on to the skills learned in Critical Thinking for Problem Solving. Breakthrough Problem Solving provides an opportunity to harness those skills and put them into practice to reframe and overcome organizational issues.

Discover how to leverage Microsoft Excel to analyze budgets and finances to help ensure the accurate and timely preparation of budget worksheets. After an overview of budgeting, the rules and regulations that govern the process, and the basics of Excel, you will participate in hands-on activities to apply spreadsheet tools and techniques needed to prepare budget worksheets.

Learn how to employ critical thinking to solve problems, identify opportunities, and effectively manage change. Explore characteristics of critical thinkers and identify strategies for overcoming common thinking patterns. Use tools and strategies to apply to your current workplace situations.

Analyze data to help solve your organization’s most complex challenges and requirements. Learn the core techniques used to analyze and model complex data into understandable information. Gather the skills to interpret data using Microsoft Excel with lessons enhanced with application-based demonstrations and exercises that will provide you with the skills needed to apply these concepts back on the job.

Analyze and collect clean data, particularly in the context of your organization’s data management. Learn best practices to combat common obstacles in data collection. Gain strategies for identifying the best types of data to address your needs, methods for collecting primary and secondary data, and diverse research methods to aid in organization decision making.

Transform your data into a compelling story that drives action. In today’s data-driven landscape, the federal government needs both skilled analysts and effective storytellers that can elevate policy and public service. In this course, you’ll use the foundations of storytelling to distill complex data into accessible and persuasive narratives. You’ll learn how to craft a strong story, sharpen your data visualization skills, and deliver engaging presentations—fostering actionable insights through a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical federal scenarios.

Explore the General Decision Support Model, a framework to guide effective decision-making during the analytics process, which helps ensure a sound business strategy based on facts. You will practice developing the questions, understanding stakeholder needs, identifying risks and uncertainties, and analyzing plan components, and will determine how to gather and analyze data to evaluate and communicate alternatives to upper management for decision-making. Examples, relevant discussions, and the use of Microsoft Excel will provide you with value that can be transferred back to the real-world environment.

Capture the value of key data analyses and present them in a way that ensures decision-makers can interpret those results in order to make sound decisions. Learn how to capture, analyze, and determine relevance to organizational needs through application-based exercises. You will explore the Analytics Process Model, evaluate analytic findings, and learn how to effectively communicate your findings to your audience.

Hone your data analytic skills by applying them to a scenario-based Federal case study. Start with the raw data files of a fictional project at a Federal agency and follow a narrative arc that participants reveal as they progress through the data. Learn to transform data into actionable decisions that support the agency’s mission, to identify analytic objectives, collect and prepare data, select analytical techniques, and interpret results. This creative training emphasizes real-world application, critical thinking, and effective communication of findings. By the end, you'll be equipped to make data-driven decisions and present actionable recommendations to meet organizational goals.

While opportunities to leverage data continue to expand rapidly, so do potential risks and compliance concerns. As some of the largest collectors and users of data, federal employees must know how to work with and use data ethically. In this course, you’ll learn how to apply the federal data ethics framework to all stages of the data lifecycle. Through real-life scenarios and exercises, you’ll explore how relevant legal authorities affect the workplace and practice solving common issues that arise when working with data, data subjects, and stakeholders.

Increase the probability of successful HR outcomes by using the most effective tools, techniques, and best practices for preparing and communicating HR data and making data-driven decisions. Throughout this course, you will learn how to leverage HR analytics to add value to your organization and which regulations and reporting requirements are most useful and relevant to your position. By applying the Analytics Process Model and utilizing Microsoft Excel, you'll be ready to organize, analyze, and present HR data.

Evaluate and solve problems using key analytics skills, including a structured six-step Analytics Process Model, which you will apply through guided collaborative scenarios with top-tier instructors. Conduct analysis projects using Microsoft Excel and develop the skills you need to improve upon the success of your organization with this experiential approach, which will provide you with a foundational understanding of analytics, with an emphasis on collecting, interpreting, and presenting data.

Learn to select an appropriate visual format to communicate data and extract valuable information from your organization’s data by removing the barriers to understanding key information. Apply basic best practices for data visualization, which will allow you to identify how to graphically display data in presentations and reports to adequately provide decision-makers with the information they need. In this course, you will learn basic data visualization techniques, then strengthen and practice those new techniques in a capstone exercise.

The approach you take to hypothesis building is as important as the hypotheses you create and test. By being strategic in your approach, you can minimize the risks of a hypothesis that is easily refuted or irrelevant to your goals. In this course, you will learn the essential aspects of how the federal workforce approaches hypothesis building, and reinforce analytic critical thinking skills such as exploring types of reasoning, spotting and avoiding logical fallacies, using effective measurement systems, and selecting evidence in hypothesis building. These skills are required to foster openness and accountability in governance and policymaking.

Learn how to apply core statistical concepts to data: describe it, make inferences, and draw conclusions that can have great organizational impact from expert instructors through hands-on exercises. Develop the skills to graphically display data, apply statistical tests to determine validity, reliability, and significance, and identify relationships between variables. You will also learn how to conduct statistical analyses in Excel to help you analyze data more quickly and effectively for your organization.

Explore leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for data-driven decision-making within the federal government. Examine the importance of AI in analyzing federal datasets, discuss the ethical and regulatory frameworks governing AI, and learn about the opportunities and risks associated with AI in federal agencies. Emphasis is placed on understanding data privacy concerns, integrating AI into decision support systems, and implementing AI-leveraged solutions effectively. Through case studies, discussions, and real-world examples, gain a deep understanding of AI-supported data analytics to drive innovation and efficiency in federal agencies, equipping you with the knowledge to be a leader in data-driven governance.