Microsoft 365 Training · Curricula & formats
100 Microsoft 365 licenses rarely turn into 100 productive users. This page shows how Microsoft 365 training (formerly Office 365) really works — role-specific curricula, adoption support, and Copilot enablement instead of a generic "Microsoft 365 basics course". With concrete formats, transparent terms, and trainers from current implementation practice.
Selection criteria
Six criteria by which every Microsoft 365 training offering should be measured. When comparing providers — ask exactly these points. Vendor-neutral wording, so you can also classify competitor answers.
01 · Trainer practice
Training is only as good as the trainer experience. Instructors without implementation and adoption practice deliver textbook knowledge without realistic insights from daily rollout reality. Look for trainers with running customer projects, not pure training profiles without architecture background.
02 · Role differentiation
What a sales employee needs in Outlook is not what an internal SharePoint power user needs — and certainly not what an IT admin needs to know about tenant settings, Intune, or Defender. A generic course for all roles creates over- and under-challenge at the same time. Good training providers have separate curricula.
03 · Copilot depth
In 2026 Microsoft 365 Copilot is a central value lever — but only when users understand prompt engineering, tenant-data anchoring, and security aspects (sensitivity labels, Data Loss Prevention). A contemporary Microsoft 365 training covers Copilot beyond mere demo clicks — with industry examples and real adoption experience.
04 · Exercises in your own tenant
Training on a generic Microsoft demo tenant transfers little into practice. Exercises on a sandbox tenant with your data, your SharePoint sites, and your Teams channels are dramatically more effective — because the learning curve is shorter in the concrete context and participants are trained for direct application.
05 · Adoption support
Classic trainings without follow-up support typically reach a half-life of 4–8 weeks. Adoption programs with weekly office hours, champion networks, and adoption dashboards lift sustained usage to 80%+. Ask whether there is follow-up.
06 · Pricing transparency
Are day rates, fixed-price packages, and travel cost openly communicated? Does the provider explain what an in-house day really costs — or do you get a lump-sum offer without breakdown? Good training providers lay the math open.
These six points are market standard for good training selection. In the next section we show where arades GmbH delivers solidly against each point.
arades as your Microsoft 365 training partner
arades GmbH has been training Microsoft 365 apps since the Office 365 BPOS days — through the Office 365 wave of the early 2010s up to today's Microsoft 365 plus Copilot platform. This history makes the difference: we know which adoption levers carry and which demo effects quickly fade.
Our Microsoft 365 trainers are not pure instructors — they lead customer rollouts in parallel and know the typical adoption hurdles, tenant quirks, and change-management questions firsthand. Training content comes from real project situations, not from Microsoft demo decks.
Four defined curricula: End user (Teams, Outlook, OneDrive efficiency, SharePoint basics), Power user (SharePoint site owner, Excel Power Query, Forms, Lists, basic Power Automate flows), Copilot user (prompt engineering, security aspects, workflow integration), and M365 admin (tenant settings, Intune basics, security baseline, compliance topics).
Copilot workshops over one day: Copilot in Word/Excel/PowerPoint with industry examples, Copilot in Teams for meeting summaries and action items, Copilot in Outlook for email triage, prompt-engineering basics, secure usage with tenant data (sensitivity labels, Data Loss Prevention), and adoption strategies for teams and departments.
For in-house trainings we set up, before the training date, a sandbox tenant with your SharePoint sites, Teams channels, and example documents. Exercises take place in the concrete context — not on a Microsoft demo system. That dramatically raises practice transfer.
Optionally on top of training: 3-month adoption program with weekly office hours, internal champion network, adoption dashboards (based on Microsoft 365 activity reports), and targeted follow-up training for users who don't become active. Transition into Application Care for continuous operations possible.
Public online dates: billed per participant-day (net) — price on request, for 1–2 days of end-user topics. In-house training from 8 participants: at a fixed price per training day, on-site plus openly calculated travel cost. On-demand videos in a subscription model. Copilot workshops and adoption programs as a customized offer.
Role curricula
Per role a defined syllabus with clear depth. Modules are combinable — an in-house training can mix the end-user curriculum with a Copilot day and selected power-user topics, for instance.
Curriculum 1 · End user
Teams in daily business (meetings, channels, apps, telephony basics), Outlook efficiency (rules, calendar, search, quick steps), OneDrive (sync, sharing, versions), SharePoint basics (read sites, manage documents), Microsoft Search in the tenant. Target audience: employees without an IT background.
Curriculum 2 · Power user
SharePoint site-owner topics (permissions, lists, libraries, navigation), Excel power user (Power Query, basic pivots, table logic), Microsoft Forms and Lists, basic Power Automate flows as self-service, Teams app configuration. Target audience: internal power users and champions.
Curriculum 3 · Copilot user
Copilot in Word/Excel/PowerPoint with industry examples, Copilot in Teams (meeting summaries, action items), Copilot in Outlook (email triage, replies), prompt-engineering basics, secure usage with tenant data, adoption strategies. Prerequisite: Copilot license and tenant preparation.
Curriculum 4 · Microsoft 365 admin
Microsoft 365 Admin Center (users, groups, licenses), Microsoft Entra ID basics (identity, Conditional Access), SharePoint admin (sites, hub sites, library limits), Exchange Online (mailboxes, rules, anti-spam), Microsoft Intune basics (device enrollment, compliance, app protection), security baseline, and audit logs.
Formats
Online-live, on-site, or on-demand — depending on team, geography, and timeframe. All formats can be combined with adoption support.
Format 1 · Online-Live
Live training via Microsoft Teams with screen transmission from the trainer and parallel participation by attendees on their own tenants. 2–4 hours per session, several sessions spread over several weeks — sparing daily operations and deepening through breaks between sessions.
Format 2 · On-Site
In-house training at your site — typically 1–2 consecutive training days. For intense topics with whiteboard discussions, Teams adoption sessions, and group work especially effective. Economical from 8 participants on. Travel cost openly calculated.
Format 3 · On-Demand + Coaching
Structured video library in a subscription model, complemented by weekly live office hours with the trainer. Suited for distributed teams, individual pace, and follow-up training for new employees. No time pressure.
Frequently asked questions
Public online-live training billed per participant-day (net) — price on request, typically 1–2 days for end-user topics. In-house training from 8 participants at a fixed price per training day (on-site plus travel cost). On-demand videos in a subscription model. Copilot workshops and adoption programs as a customized offer.
Focus: Microsoft Teams (meetings, channels, apps, telephony), SharePoint Online (sites, lists, permissions, power-user extensions), OneDrive (sync, sharing, versions), Outlook and Exchange (efficiency workflows, calendar, rules), Excel and Office Apps (power-user topics, Power Query, basic pivots), Microsoft 365 Copilot (workspace integration, prompt engineering, security aspects). Optionally admin topics for IT teams.
Yes. Copilot workshops are a standalone focus: Copilot in Word/Excel/PowerPoint, Copilot in Teams for meeting summaries, Copilot in Outlook, prompt-engineering basics, secure usage with tenant data (sensitivity labels, Data Loss Prevention), adoption strategies for teams and departments. A one-day intensive workshop for end users, separate sessions for admins.
Both terms mean the same product today. Microsoft renamed the "Office 365" brand to "Microsoft 365" in 2020 — and expanded scope with device management (Intune), security building blocks, and Copilot. Anyone searching for "Office 365 training" usually means a Microsoft 365 training. Our curricula cover both worlds — from older Office 365 versions to current Microsoft 365 plus Copilot setups.
Teams adoption works via three levers: (1) structured end-user training with industry context, (2) a champion program made of internal power users who help on the ground, (3) adoption monitoring with M365 activity reports. Realistic goal: 80% of licensed users open Teams weekly. Adoption programs over 3 months are our recommendation over one-off training.
Yes. German and English sessions are standard. French, Spanish, or Italian on request via partners in our network.
Both. Public online dates for common topics (Teams basics, Outlook efficiency, Excel power user, Copilot introduction) — suited for individuals and small groups. In-house training for mid-market rollouts from 8 participants, with exercises tailored to the customer system.
Further reading
Six follow-on topics that typically become relevant after the Microsoft 365 training selection.
Strategy workshop, license audit, Copilot readiness, security baseline — Microsoft 365 advisory for mid-market companies.
Business Basic/Standard/Premium, E1/E3/E5, Frontline F1/F3, Copilot — license models, NCE mechanics, triennial discounts.
Tenant setup, mailbox and SharePoint migration, Teams adoption, security baseline — the introduction in four phases.
Engineering overview: Teams, SharePoint, Exchange, OneDrive, Intune, Defender — the Microsoft 365 platform explained technically.
Ongoing Microsoft 365 care with defined response time. Pay-per-Hour, Application Care, or Strategic Care.
Calculate yourself what your Microsoft 365 licenses would cost with the right plan mix — including Copilot.
30 min · free · no obligation
Tell us about your team structure and your Microsoft 365 status. We listen, classify, and propose a fitting curriculum — format, duration, adoption support. If another training path fits better, we say so.
