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Access Training? – Not Quite!
August is relatively quiet in the Training world and with that comes lower numbers on courses and a different approach to training.
This week I’ve had two courses both with only one person on (we really don’t cancel courses unless we have to) and in both cases we worked almost exclusively on our customer’s databases and surrounding issues.
The first was an Access Intermediate course with Alex from API Technologies. The database was used in conjunction with a hand held barcode scanner to make production line operators’ work easier, with quicker and more accurate data logging. We worked on the solution for the whole day, pulling snippets of training from the Introduction, Intermediate and Advanced Access courses to cover what was required to progress the project. I know barcode scanners aren’t at the forefront of the technology (or price) curve, but plugging one bit of technology into another and seeing them work together is always fun.
The second was an Access Advanced course with Sam from asyss.co.uk. The database in this case was for an EPOS system for trade counters, developed by Sam for use in a local multisite company. Currently the database contains 2,500 stock items, 35,000 purchase lines and 100,000 sales lines, with the sales lines expected to be around 500,000 per year. Sam knew almost everything on the course and was already well versed in Access VBA. Not normally a good sign from my point of view, but it turned into a very productive and interesting day!
Over the course of the day we looked at the flexibility of Macros in Access 2013, especially as VBA can’t be used in Access Web Apps; moving the back end of the database to Microsoft’s Azure SQL (£3.05 per month is not a bad starting price); tying down the front end using the (free) runtime edition of Access 2013 and we even included a couple of topics that were actually on the course.
I love training our standard courses as sometimes the skills are, to quote a delegate, life changing! This wasn’t a typical week, but I must say it was enjoyable and I wonder if more people could benefit from this type one to one training.