Is 30 Too Old to Learn PowerPoint?

It’s never too late to learn something new--and the National Institute on Aging tells us there are cognitive benefits to continuing our education as we age. Learning a new skill can help your mental health (after all, who doesn’t feel better when they accomplish something?) and can even affect the wiring of your brain. So 30 is not too late to learn PowerPoint, and it can have lasting benefits for your cognition--along with your ability to create presentations that are beautiful, persuasive, or both. This article will help you determine whether learning PowerPoint in your thirties is a good use of your time.

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Why Learn PowerPoint at 30?

The use of PowerPoint is nearly ubiquitous: it is the industry-standard presentation software across an array of fields, so learning its ins and outs is a great way to get a leg up in the business world. PowerPoint can be a helpful tool in a marketing and branding context, used to create logos, style guides, and content, including social media videos--all of which can be useful for those in the digital media marketing world. In other corporate contexts, people choose PowerPoint to share information with clients or build slide decks for use in conjunction with an oral presentation, both of which can create high-stakes situations. Understanding your particular PowerPoint needs will give you the confidence to use it in ways that might otherwise feel intimidating. 

While some see PowerPoint as a gateway to better client engagement, improved branding, increased sales, or a way to move up the ranks, others might be interested in using the software as a hobbyist, parent, or volunteer. If you’re looking to build a slideshow for a wedding or family reunion, you’d like to supervise your child’s school project, or you could use a way to share materials with other members of a community organization you’re involved with--PowerPoint is the right tool. There are so many ways to use PowerPoint that it will not be a waste of time to learn it, and you may find that knowing the program will open up opportunities you didn’t expect. Perhaps you learn PowerPoint for use at work, but then realize you can use it to make flyers for a local event, create infographics for your side hustle, or design your holiday card.

PowerPoint can also serve as a collaborative tool, and learning the program at an advanced level can mean becoming the point person in your organization. Collaborative software has become an important component of remote work, and PowerPoint was an early adopter. Teammates across the country or across the street can add to and share slideshows, which allows for seamless integration of material and an easy way to work asynchronously on a group project. Understanding PowerPoint can go beyond the quotidian: as humans, we rely on stories, and PowerPoint acts as a tool to get those stories out there. Learning the program can mean sharing that very human experience with the people in your world. 

How Long Will it Take to Learn PowerPoint?

PowerPoint has many uses, so it’s important to determine your particular needs before deciding how much time to commit to learning it. If you’re using PowerPoint for simple purposes at home, checking out tutorials on the Microsoft support website and watching YouTube videos by knowledgeable content creators may be enough--which could all happen in a matter of a few hours. If you’re planning to use PowerPoint professionally, your training needs are going to be different. You may need to incorporate the use of animation or video, integrate tables and charts from Excel, or manage larger presentations with custom shows--all of which would be covered in a high-level PowerPoint class, but which you can also teach yourself with diligence and the right tools.

Before investing in a course, take a look at PowerPoint to see how much you can learn on your own in an hour. Choose a template that matches the style and authority you’d like to project. Begin experimenting with typefaces, try to upload an image, play with color. You may discover that the basics are easy for you to master--in which case you might be able to continue teaching yourself until you hit a roadblock, or at least skip an introductory course and go straight to a more advanced offering. If it feels challenging to open up a PowerPoint program and begin to play around, there are plenty of books and podcast episodes that teach the basics of PowerPoint, which may be a good place for you to start. You will have to carve time out of your schedule to teach yourself PowerPoint skills, which could mean it will take several weeks or even months.

Self-paced on-demand classes can be a way to level up from self-teaching. They are empowering, too: for many people, the idea of learning something independently without investing a lot of money will offer a confidence boost. An on-demand course will generally offer anywhere from 15 to 35 hours of video material to help learn the fundamentals, and move toward mastery of PowerPoint. It’s likely that working independently--simply experimenting with the software or reading books and listening to podcasts--would take as many hours, but the structure of a self-paced course could allow for a slightly faster and more streamlined process. 

There are drawbacks to self-paced courses. While some learners are adept at managing time and making it across the finish line, those can be challenging skills for others. Without the guidance of a live instructor, it’s easy to get hung up on certain concepts--which might lead some people to throw in the towel. According to LinkedIn, only between five and fifteen percent of people who start a self-paced course actually finish it. This may work out for some people: it’s possible to become “good enough” at PowerPoint without completing the entirety of a course, but that will depend on the needs of the individual learner. If you’re taking the time to learn a new skill at all, you may as well set yourself up for success. In an interesting twist, it’s actually possible that you might learn PowerPoint better by spending less time doing so--with short form live classes and bootcamps. 

Ways to Make Learning PowerPoint Easier and Quicker

For many, the fastest way to learn PowerPoint is to enroll in a class. Starting with a level one class will provide the grounding that’s needed, and you can move on to an advanced class if those additional skills will help you in your learning journey. An introductory class will cover such basics as adding text, images, shapes, and transitions. If you’ve already begun tinkering with the program, you may understand the basics. If that’s the case, it’s worth looking at syllabi for a few level two or advanced PowerPoint classes, as you will need to make sure you meet the prerequisites. An advanced class will tend to cover the use of animation and video, ways of managing large presentations with custom shows and sections, as well as custom themes. If you understand such fundamentals as adding text, images, and transitions, working with tables and charts, and preparing slideshows for live presentations, you should be well prepared for a more advanced class.

Total immersion is an excellent way to learn a new language--and it can be helpful when learning a new computer program, too. Taking a PowerPoint bootcamp means a concentrated window of time in which to master new skills. This sort of singular focus can be a big advantage: in a society that increasingly rewards multi-tasking, it’s still a huge benefit to put aside other distractions and do a deep dive. As a general rule, people don’t do well when they are asked to take on more than one task at a time, even seemingly simple tasks--and there’s research from Stanford University that proves it. A PowerPoint bootcamp is a great way to focus your brain on one thing, and it also allows for scaffolding--so you’ll have everything you need to take your presentations to the highest level by the time the bootcamp is done. The bootcamp structure can be especially helpful if you are a quick learner, since taking individual classes over a longer period of time might feel as though it’s slowing you down.

Nothing compares with the kind of dynamic interaction you’ll experience in a live class, whether online or in-person. These classes tend to work better for many people because of the ability to get immediate feedback from the teacher and the other students. Learning independently can feel like working in a vacuum: you learn the skill, implement it, and move on. The encouragement of your classmates and instructor in a live class can go a long way toward building your confidence and inspiring you to keep going. Even the way a teacher explains things can be sticky enough to stay with you: you may find you’re hearing their voice in your ear when creating PowerPoint presentations long after the class is over.

Live online classes are a great fit for many learners, because they cut out the commute and allow people to work from the comfort of their own homes. They also work well for those who prefer to use their own computers, which can sometimes mean developing a higher level of comfort with the software. In-person classes are preferable for students who may be less distracted in a classroom environment and enjoy the social interactions they can experience there. Both options are widely available. 

For students who want to achieve expert-level skills in a relatively short amount of time, a PowerPoint bootcamp will be the best bet. You will want real-time instruction and direct feedback from the teacher--so opt for either an in-person or live online class. One great option? Noble Content’s Level I and Level II classes are available bundled as a PowerPoint Bootcamp, which will save you money and allow you to move seamlessly from basics to advanced skills in a matter of two days. These bootcamps pride themselves on their small enrollment, so you can be assured of that perfect balance between peer engagement and personal attention.