TechFluent Academy

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Master Microsoft Excel, Day 1
2025-12-18 13:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago)
Self-Study: Master Microsoft Excel (13 hours total)
Employers around the world cite Microsoft Excel as one of the most sought-after skills for any new hire. This learning path helps you become an Excel power user—covering everything from functions and formatting to PivotTables and dashboards.
Master the powerful features and functions in Excel. Learn how to use Excel’s robust built-in formulas. Get up to speed on PivotTables, dashboards, and Power Query.
Recommended completing 5 hours on Day 1.

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Master Microsoft Teams, Day 2
2025-12-19 09:00 - 16:00
Self-Study: Master Microsoft Teams (10 hours total)
Microsoft Teams is changing the way people communicate and collaborate at work. Learn to utilize the robust features included in Teams for text chats, channel conversations, file sharing, meetings, events, and more. Master Teams chats, channel conversations, and calls. Schedule, facilitate, and optimize Teams meetings. Leverage Teams to manage projects of any size.
Recommend completing 7 hours on Day 2.

2026 Cohort: How to be Influential, with Pam Acosta
2025-12-19 13:00 - 16:00
with Pam Acosta
ERP Consultant
How to be Influential
This course is designed to help you become your most Influential Self. Upon completing this course you will be able to utilize storytelling techniques to effectively communicate complex business concepts in an engaging and illustrative way with leveraging data points. You will be able to tailor communications that align with target audiences and client personas. And you will be able to apply the components of of influence to effectively manage outcomes and over comes obstacles with others.
This course designed by Lindsay Millett-Glass and Elizabeth Fleming, PsyD of Apidae Consulting

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Master Microsoft Excel, Day 2
2025-12-22 09:00 - 13:00
Master Microsoft Excel (13 hours total)
Employers around the world cite Microsoft Excel as one of the most sought-after skills for any new hire. This learning path helps you become an Excel power user—covering everything from functions and formatting to PivotTables and dashboards. Master the powerful features and functions in Excel. Learn how to use Excel’s robust built-in formulas. Get up to speed on PivotTables, dashboards, and Power Query.
Recommend completing 4 hours on Day 2.

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Master Microsoft Word, Day 1
2025-12-22 13:00 - 17:00
Master Microsoft Word (8 hours total)
Proficiency in Microsoft Word is one of the most in-demand software skills today. This learning path helps you become a power user in Word. Discover how to create forms, format documents, use built-in templates, and more. Use Word’s powerful features and functions with ease.
Create and edit forms. Utilize Word’s built-in styles and templates.
Recommend completing 4 hours on Day 1.

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Master Microsoft Excel, Day 3
2025-12-23 08:00 - 13:00
Master Microsoft Excel (13 hours total)
Employers around the world cite Microsoft Excel as one of the most sought-after skills for any new hire. This learning path helps you become an Excel power user—covering everything from functions and formatting to PivotTables and dashboards. Master the powerful features and functions in Excel. Learn how to use Excel’s robust built-in formulas. Get up to speed on PivotTables, dashboards, and Power Query.
Recommend completing 5 hours on Day 3.

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Master Microsoft Word, Day 2
2025-12-23 13:00 - 17:00
Master Microsoft Word (8 hours total)
Proficiency in Microsoft Word is one of the most in-demand software skills today. This learning path helps you become a power user in Word. Discover how to create forms, format documents, use built-in templates, and more. Use Word’s powerful features and functions with ease.
Create and edit forms. Utilize Word’s built-in styles and templates.
Recommend completing 4 hours on Day 2.

Happy Winter Holiday!
2025-12-24 - 2025-12-26

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Master Microsoft OneNote
2025-12-26 13:00 - 16:30
Self-Study: Master Microsoft OneNote (4.5 hours total)
Microsoft OneNote is one of the most popular digital note-taking apps, used in companies large and small. With this learning path, you can master OneNote and discover how to take notes more effectively and use them across your organization. Discover OneNote’s robust built-in features. Take notes more efficiently and save time with shortcuts. Master the powerful collaboration features of OneNote.

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Mastering Microsoft PowerPoint, Day 1
2025-12-29 09:00 - 14:00
Mastering Microsoft PowerPoint (10 hours total)
Proficiency in Microsoft PowerPoint is an essential skill for many careers. Discover how to create more polished and professional presentations by mastering PowerPoint. Learn to use the features and built-in tools in PowerPoint. Design better slides, using animations and rich media. Enhance presentations with visualizations and storytelling.
Recommend completing 5 hours on Day 1.

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Presenting to Senior Execs
2025-12-29 14:00 - 15:00
Presenting to Senior Execs (1 hours total)

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Mastering Microsoft PowerPoint, Day 2
2025-12-30 09:00 - 14:00
Mastering Microsoft PowerPoint (10 hours total)
Proficiency in Microsoft PowerPoint is an essential skill for many careers. Discover how to create more polished and professional presentations by mastering PowerPoint. Learn to use the features and built-in tools in PowerPoint. Design better slides, using animations and rich media. Enhance presentations with visualizations and storytelling.
Recommend completing 5 hours on Day 2.

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Creating and Giving Business Presentations
2025-12-30 14:00 - 15:30
Creating and Giving Business Presentations (1.5 hours total)

Happy New Year!
2025-12-31 - 2026-01-02

2026 Cohort: Intro to Project Management, with Sienna Howlett-Wagner & Staci Cotter
2026-01-05 09:00 - 16:00
Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter
Sienna is an F&SCM Industry Delivery Consultant & TechFluent Board Treasurer
Staci is a Senior Project Manager at WinfoSoft
In this session, we will introduce you to the basics of Project Management, both within the scope of Microsoft Delivery as well as Project Management in general.
You will learn how to start and run a project.
At the completion of this course, you will have a foundation in Project Management, but not specific governance process or templates on exactly how to execute Project Management for a specific business division. This course is intended for individuals who are new to project management with little to no experience. You will understand the core concepts, be able to define and manage project scope, track project status, properly start or initiate a project. You will understand how to schedule tasks properly and you will understand the concept of Risk Management.
The Learning Objectives include:

Understanding the scope, importance and impact of project management on the successful delivery of projects.
Defining and explaining the core principles of project management and how they apply to technology implementation (specifically D365) projects.
Apply and manage fundamental project management practices using tools and deliverables to drive execution.

2026 Cohort: Intro to Delivery Management, with Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter
2026-01-07 09:00 - 16:00
Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter
Sienna is an F&SCM Industry Delivery Consultant & TechFluent Board Treasurer
Staci is a Senior Project Manager at WinfoSoft
Introduction to Delivery Management
In this session, we will introduce you to the concept of Delivery Management. At the completion of this course, you will understand the key differences between Delivery Management and Project Management. This course is intended to showcase how Microsoft Partners leverage Delivery Managers / Directors to insure what the client purchased is delivered. By the end of this class you will understand where the role of the Delivery Lead ends and the role of the PM begins – seamlessly managing the client, program and deliverables.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Understand the role and responsibilities of a delivery manager on a D365 or on a Cross Platform Project
Apply delivery frameworks (Agile, Scrum, Success by Design) in real-world scenarios
Manage scope, timelines, risks, and dependencies across complex initiatives
Facilitate effective communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders
Use metrics and KPIs to track progress and drive continuous improvement
Navigate organizational dynamics and foster high-performing teams

2026 Cohort: Leveraging FutureFit AI to Create Your Career Journey
2026-01-08 13:00 - 14:30 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
Learn how to leverage the FutureFit Platform for the creation of your Career Journey! TechFluent teaches you how this innovate technology will help you bridge any gap in skills you may have to achieving the career you desire from where you are today by mapping exactly which learning paths to take to get where you need to be. This Platform can help you build the resume and cover letter that will help get you through ATS systems, identify how likely you are to match jobs you are interested in and provide you with a plethora of career resource to uplevel your overall career journey.

2026 Cohort: Intro to Business Analysis, with Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter
2026-01-09 09:00 - 16:00
Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter
Sienna is an F&SCM Industry Delivery Consultant & TechFluent Board Treasurer
Staci is a Senior Project Manager at WinfoSoft
Introduction to Business Analysis
In this session, we will review the discipline of business analysis. We will discuss the career for Business Analysts and introduce you the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), its standards and Certifications. You will learn the various types of Requirements that Business Analysts are required to understand and work with. And, finally, you will become familiar with the typical Business Analysis process expected to be followed by all BAs in the technology space – Scrum. Finally, we will complete an exercise in this course to help solidify everything we’ve learned.
Upon completion of this session, the participant will be able to:

Understand the role a Business Analyst fulfills on the Project Team and responsibilities for Project Alignment
Articulate the career pathways within the Microsoft Industry that align with BA associated skills
Identify and properly align appropriate process mapping to the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) approach defined for the project
Properly curate a Communication Plan to distill Requirements into User Stories through the selected project SDLC using the appropriate ceremonies
Identify and leverage the appropriate toolset to support Communication, Risk Management, Issue Tracking and Traceability of the Project

Exercise / Lab: Barista Process Flow

The Power of Query Editor: Beyond the Standard, with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-12 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
The Power of Query Editor: Beyond the Standard
with Jessica Jolly
Data Quilter specializing in Microsoft Fabric
The purpose of this training day is to give students an understanding of the Power Query Editor, beyond the standard transformations (removing columns etc.) A special emphasis will be placed on:

The M-language
Future proofing a query
Re-using steps in other queries.
Complex transformations

This training day should enable participants to decide whether the PQE (and M) is an area they want to specialize in. It also should give students strong interview preparation. It will include exercises to be performed in their own time. Because the Power Query Editor is a tool that many knowledge workers are not familiar with, learners will bring knowledge of the tool that they can share with co-workers. Because the Power Query Editor is useful with Excel and Power BI, it is a tool that can add value to the workplace in multiple ways.

2026 Cohort: User Story Development & Solution Design, with Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter
2026-01-12 09:00 - 16:00
Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter
Sienna is an F&SCM Industry Delivery Consultant & TechFluent Board Treasurer
Staci is a Senior Project Manager at WinfoSoft
User Story Development & Solution Design
In this session, you will learn to properly develop User Stories distilling them from Requirements and gathering the details needed from your client through proper Backlog Grooming techniques. Additionally, we will review ways to manage a backlog properly whether you have basic tools (Excel) or nirvana (GYDE365), or something in between, to assist. After the User Stories are defined, they can be broken down further into Tasks for proper Solution Design, which is the next step in the Development Process and the next logical learning objective for this course. By the end of this course, you will know how to properly document your project’s Scope and Design in a manner that is traceable, trackable and consumable for building, testing and deployment.

Developing User Stories – Learn to distill User Stories from Requirements and gather essential details through effective Backlog Grooming techniques.
Backlog Management – Understand strategies for managing a backlog using various tools, from basic (Excel) to advanced (GYDE365), and everything in between.
Breaking Down User Stories into Tasks – Gain the ability to refine User Stories into Tasks to support proper Solution Design.
Solution Design Process – Understand how Task definition leads into the next step of the Development Process, ensuring a logical workflow.
Project Scope & Design Documentation – Learn to document project Scope and Design in a way that ensures traceability, trackability, and usability for building, testing, and deployment.

Data Modeling, with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-13 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
Data Modeling (2-Day Session)
with Jessica Jolly
Data Quilter specializing in Microsoft Fabric
The purpose of these training days is to give participants a strong understanding of data modeling. This is one of the central skills in Power BI, and participants should be able to discuss and create strong data models. Students should be able to articulate the advantages and disadvantages of a particular data model’s structure. Learners will be able to build performant data models from the start of their employment. Data modeling is a skill set that is not easy to master; TechFluent learners will not need the beginner or intermediate training in data modeling principles and concepts. Additionally, they will be able to share best practices and explain the reasons why a practice is ideal for other employees.

The Star Schema (and other less ideal data models)
Relationships (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many)
Active and inactive relationships
Identify and diagnose problems in a data model (repeating values, incorrect results, ambiguous results)
How to identify facts and dimensions
When to create a calculated column vs. creating it in the PQE
How to measure performance in a report

Data Modeling (Day 2), with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-14 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States

DAX, with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-15 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
DAX (2-Day Session)
with Jessica Jolly
Data Quilter specializing in Microsoft Fabric
The purpose of these training days is to give participants a working knowledge of DAX to create calculated columns, measures, tables, security roles. Participants will also understand and use filter and row context. Learners will be versed in the syntax and principles of the DAX language. They will have hands-on experience writing and de-bugging DAX expressions. They will be exposed to the mechanics of the VertiPaq engine. They will also be introduced to external tools that can help with DAX de-bugging and performance measurement such as DAX Studio and Tabular Editor.
Students will be able to use a variety of DAX functions fluently, including, but not limited to:

SUMMARIZE, SUMMARIZECOLUMNS, ADDCOLUMNS
FILTER, VALUES
CALCULATE, CALCULATETABLE
SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT and the iterative versions of these functions

Advanced Microsoft Excel, with Wilson Man
2026-01-16 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
Advanced Microsoft Excel
with Wilson Man
Wilson is a Business Intelligence Professional at Love’s Travel Stops.
NOTE ABOUT Live Virtual Delivery of Class: This class will be delivered Live Virtual, which means the Instructor will not be present in the classroom. We strongly encourage all students to be present in the classroom as we will still have 2 Trainer Assistants present to assist with Lab Exercises and this material is quite intensive. However, if you feel you will learn best attending from a Virtual Location, you may make PRE-ARRANGEMENTS with the Program Manager 1 week in advance to attend Live Virtual. You are expected to be ENGAGED throughout the class – which means you will need to be commenting on the instruction, asking questions in the Chat and interacting throughout the entire day with responses and emojis to the instructor in the Chat. Failure to be engaged will require that you attend all future Live Virtual Classes in person. This is non-negotiable.

DAX (Day 2), with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-19 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States

2026 Cohort: Intro to Change Management with Staci Cotter
2026-01-19 09:00 - 16:00
Intro to Change Management
with Staci Cotter
Senior Project Manager at WinfoSoft
In this session, we will introduce the concept of Organizational Change Management and how it fits into the framework of successful Delivery Management. You will learn to properly define adoption and change management in the context of technology implementations. You will learn to describe the objectives of change management within a project or program. You will review change methodologies and discuss examples and how they apply to your project or program. And finally, we will discuss why it is important to apply an empathetic lens to interactions with a variety of people involved in your project or program.

Building a Report, with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-20 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
Building a Report
with Jessica Jolly
Data Quilter specializing in Microsoft Fabric
The purpose of this training day is to give participants a full knowledge of the features and functionality used when creating a report. Students will be asked to create a report (as homework) that includes all the functionality that we have covered in the class. Learners will understand the nuances of report performance. They will be familiar with the differences between slicers, the filter panel, and drill throughs. They will have hands-on experience building buttons and bookmarks and linking the two together. Additionally, they will be familiarized with external tools that enable building Power BI themes.

Drill through
Interactions
Slicers vs. Filter pane
Bookmarks
Buttons
Themes

Working in the Power BI Service, with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-21 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
Working in the Power BI Service
with Jessica Jolly
Data Quilter specializing in Microsoft Fabric
The purpose of this training day is to give participants a strong understanding of the Power BI Service. Learners will be able to articulate what work is best done in the Service and what work is best done in the Power BI Desktop. They will be trained in best practices in sharing reports (e.g. controlling “security sprawl”) within the organization. They will understand the constraints imposed by licensing. They will be briefed on Power BI Premium, when and why Premium is necessary.
Topics will include, but are not limited to:

Workspaces
Apps (using and creating)
Setting a refresh schedule
Editing reports and dashboards
Creating a dashboard
Creating a workspace and assigning roles

2026 Cohort: Self-Study - Financial Literacy - Part 1
2026-01-21 09:00 - 16:00
Self-Study: Financial Literacy – Part 1

Managing Your Personal Finances (1 hr)
Financial Basics Everyone Should Know (1hr 50m)
Financial Adulting (1h)
Finance Foundations: Income Taxes (2h)

Creating Efficiencies, with Jessica Jolly
2026-01-22 09:00 - 16:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
Creating Efficiencies
with Jessica Jolly
Data Quilter specializing in Microsoft Fabric
The purpose of this training day is to show students how to use datasets and dataflows to eliminate re-work. It will also include creating a composite model (online data model and local data model). Learners will be able to articulate the benefits and limitations of working with datasets and dataflows created by others. This knowledge can provide significant benefits to employers as TechFluent learners can articulate and implement more efficient ways of working with data. They will be able to help streamlined ways of creating Power BI reports. Learners will also be able to choose between using Import, Direct Query, and Live Connection for ingesting data and/or data models.
