Data is everywhere. Whether you are at the grocery store, office, laboratory, classroom, or ballpark, you are awash in data: prices, schedules, performance measures, lab results, recipes, contact information, quality metrics, market indices, grades, and statistics.

Most job roles today involve some form of data management. In the case of data workers, it may be their primary job task. For some, such as research scientists and accountants, data management may be a strong component of the job. And for others, such as sales clerks or those in the skilled trades, data management may consist of an incidental job responsibility, for example, time reporting or recording a sale. Virtually everyone is affected in some way by the need to manage data.

A relational database application such as Microsoft® Office Access® can help you and your organization collect and manage large amounts of data. Access is a versatile tool. You can use it as a personal data management tool (for your use alone), or you can use it as a construction set to develop applications for an entire department or organization. In this course, you will use Access to manage your data, including creating a new database; constructing tables; designing forms and reports; and creating queries to join, filter, and sort data. You can also use the course to prepare for the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Certification exam for Microsoft Access.