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✦ Velza Academy · AI for Beginners at Work

AI for Beginners at Work

Use AI for the work already on your desk. Learn to polish social posts, draft client emails and texts, and organize information from documents. Start with the basics, practice together, and check the results before you use them.

3 live classesThree optional Friday office hoursSunday evening sessions1-year replay accessBonus on-demand course and AI Glossary for Work
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Next cohort starts in $149 $74Save $75Code HALFOFF applied automatically

✦ Your instructor

Mike Wheeler, founder of Velza Training and Consulting

Learn from Mike Wheeler

Mike Wheeler is an AI and Salesforce trainer and O’Reilly author. He has taught well over 500,000 global learners on major platforms such as edX, LinkedIn Learning, Pearson, and Udemy, and he built the first generative AI course on edX. He teaches for non-coders, working backward from your career goals.

500,000+ global learners taught O’Reilly author As Seen on edX, Pearson, LinkedIn Learning & Udemy

Who this is for

This course is for people who have tried ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot a few times, or not at all, and want to use AI on real work without getting burned by a confident wrong answer. If you are comfortable with email and web browsing, you are ready. No coding or prior workplace AI experience is required.

We explain the actions as we go, repeat familiar tasks, and make room for basic questions. The focus is useful writing and document support, at a beginner’s pace.

✦ The curriculum & schedule

Your live sessions

Three live teaching sessions plus three optional Friday office hours over three weeks. Can’t attend live? Every session is recorded.

Three live teaching sessions over three weeks. Can’t attend live? Every session is recorded.

Session1
Friday, October 9
2-3 PM Central

Office Hours Optional

Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across the October Velza Academy cohorts.

Session2
Sunday, October 11
7:30-8:30 PM Central

Get Comfortable with AI at Work

Learn how an AI Chat Assistant fits into an ordinary workday. Turn rough notes into a clear client follow-up, then ask for changes and check the answer.

  • Understand how an AI Chat Assistant writes, and why it can sound confident and still be wrong
  • Start a conversation and describe the task in plain language
  • Supply the audience, purpose, facts, and tone the draft needs
  • Ask for a shorter, warmer, or clearer version without changing the facts
  • Spot invented details and keep confidential information out of practice
  • Save an edited client email and a reusable set of starting instructions
Session3
Friday, October 16
2-3 PM Central

Office Hours Optional

Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across the October Velza Academy cohorts.

Session4
Sunday, October 18
7:30-8:30 PM Central

Write Social Posts and Client Messages

Use the same business information to create polished social posts, emails, and texts that sound appropriate for your audience.

  • Draft a social post from a fictional business fact sheet
  • Adapt the message into a client email and a concise text
  • Build a simple reference for your business voice
  • Respond to client questions without inventing promises or commitments
  • Review the facts, tone, and required approvals before publishing or sending
Session5
Friday, October 23
2-3 PM Central

Office Hours Optional

Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across the October Velza Academy cohorts.

Session6
Sunday, October 25
7:30-8:30 PM Central

Work with Documents and Build a Repeatable Habit

Practice with fictional client agreements and document excerpts. Organize what the text says, prepare questions for professional review, and put your reusable instructions together.

  • Compare an AI-generated summary with the exact supplied wording
  • Organize stated responsibilities and flag missing information
  • Gather business facts and questions for a qualified legal professional
  • Keep document support separate from decisions about legal terms
  • Build a personal work kit with reviewed examples and checklists
Session1
Sunday, November 1
7:30-8:30 PM Central

Get Comfortable with AI at Work

Learn how an AI Chat Assistant fits into an ordinary workday. Turn rough notes into a clear client follow-up, then ask for changes and check the answer.

  • Understand how an AI Chat Assistant writes, and why it can sound confident and still be wrong
  • Start a conversation and describe the task in plain language
  • Supply the audience, purpose, facts, and tone the draft needs
  • Ask for a shorter, warmer, or clearer version without changing the facts
  • Spot invented details and keep confidential information out of practice
  • Save an edited client email and a reusable set of starting instructions
Session2
Sunday, November 8
7:30-8:30 PM Central

Write Social Posts and Client Messages

Use the same business information to create polished social posts, emails, and texts that sound appropriate for your audience.

  • Draft a social post from a fictional business fact sheet
  • Adapt the message into a client email and a concise text
  • Build a simple reference for your business voice
  • Respond to client questions without inventing promises or commitments
  • Review the facts, tone, and required approvals before publishing or sending
Session3
Sunday, November 15
7:30-8:30 PM Central

Work with Documents and Build a Repeatable Habit

Practice with fictional client agreements and document excerpts. Organize what the text says, prepare questions for professional review, and put your reusable instructions together.

  • Compare an AI-generated summary with the exact supplied wording
  • Organize stated responsibilities and flag missing information
  • Gather business facts and questions for a qualified legal professional
  • Keep document support separate from decisions about legal terms
  • Build a personal work kit with reviewed examples and checklists

✦ What you’ll learn

The layers you’ll learn

Use the weekly practice to guide your preparation.

✦ What you’ll walk away with

By the end, you’ll be able to

Learn through guided practice and discussion.

Three weekly live sessions. Mike demonstrates a familiar task, explains each action, and gives you time to practice and ask questions. Exercises use fictional business and client information. Bring a computer for editing drafts; you do not need a complicated setup or coding tools. Bring access to an AI Chat Assistant for the practice exercises.

✦ What’s included

Everything that’s included

3 live teaching sessions plus 3 office hours

Live over three weeks, Sunday evenings at 7:30-8:30 PM Central, plus three optional Friday office hours at 2-3 PM Central for job-market intel and open Q&A.

3 live teaching sessions

Live over three weeks, Sunday evenings at 7:30-8:30 PM Central.

1-year replay access

Every session is recorded, and you keep access to the replays for a full year, so you can rewatch any time you need them.

Weekly hands-on projects

In week one you build reusable starting instructions and edited examples for social posts, follow-ups, client emails, and texts. In week two you build a plain-language guide to the tone and wording you want, supported by approved examples. In week three you build a source-checked summary and questions prepared from a fictional agreement for professional review. You also leave with a guide to the conversation steps, fictional practice materials, and checks for accuracy, private information, and approval.

Bonus: AI for Beginners at Work On-Demand Course

Every enrollee gets Mike’s AI for Beginners at Work on-demand video course free. It adds walkthroughs of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, and more examples and practice than fit in a live hour. Each week, Mike recommends the lessons that build on that week’s live session, so you keep learning between classes.

Bonus: AI Glossary for Work

A plain-English A to Z reference to the AI terms you will hear in class and at work, with workplace examples. When a new word comes up, you can look it up in seconds and keep going.

Certificate of completion

Finish the cohort and you get a personalized certificate showing your name, your track, the live session dates, and the hours of live instruction, with a public verification link your employer can check for reimbursement. Print it, save it as a PDF, or share it on LinkedIn.

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$149 $74Save $75Code HALFOFF is applied automatically. Nothing to type.

Includes the AI for Beginners at Work on-demand companion course at no extra cost, with sections assigned as weekly homework.

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✦ Questions, answered

Frequently asked

Is this suitable if I have only used ChatGPT personally?

Yes. The course begins with the basic conversation steps and applies them to familiar work tasks. You do not need experience using AI for your job.

Will this teach me to create or approve contracts with AI?

Contract-related exercises focus on organizing supplied business information, checking summaries, and preparing questions for a qualified legal professional. The course does not provide legal advice or replace professional contract drafting and review.

Can I practice with real client information?

Class exercises use fictional information. For real work, follow your employer’s rules and obtain the appropriate approval before putting client, personal, or confidential information into any AI tool.

How is this different from AI-Powered Professional?

This course begins with everyday chat, writing, revision, and document-support tasks. AI-Powered Professional moves into context, memory, agent workflows, and the controls around more advanced AI work. Start here if you want help with the basics.

Will we send messages or publish posts during class?

No. You will prepare and review drafts. You remain responsible for deciding what to send or publish after the required workplace review.

Do I need to understand how AI works technically?

No. We cover what you need in plain language: how an AI Chat Assistant produces its answers, why it can sound confident and still be wrong, what it knows and does not know about your business, and how to decide when a draft can be trusted. The on-demand course and the AI Glossary for Work are there whenever you want to go deeper.

How do the bonuses work?

You receive both during the course. Each week, Mike recommends on-demand lessons that go deeper on that week’s live topics, and the AI Glossary for Work is there whenever a term comes up in class or at work.

What if I can’t make a session live?

Every session is recorded and shared, and you keep access to the replays for a full year, so you can watch or rewatch any of them on your own schedule. The optional Friday office hours are recorded too.Every session is recorded and shared, and you keep access to the replays for a full year, so you can watch or rewatch any of them on your own schedule.

Why a live cohort instead of studying on my own?

A live cohort gives you a steady three-week pace, answers to your questions in real time, weekly hands-on practice, and three optional Friday office hours. The on-demand course and the AI Glossary for Work add depth alongside the live sessions, so you get guided practice and reference material you can keep coming back to.A live cohort gives you a steady three-week pace, answers to your questions in real time, and weekly hands-on practice. The on-demand course and the AI Glossary for Work add depth alongside the live sessions, so you get guided practice and reference material you can keep coming back to.

Do I get a certificate of completion?

Yes. When your cohort ends, you receive a personalized certificate of completion by email. It shows your name, the track, the live session dates, and the hours of live instruction, and it carries a certificate number with a public verification address your employer can confirm it against, which is what most reimbursement forms need. The certificate recognizes completion of this workplace skills course.

What is your refund policy?

You can request a full refund until 24 hours after the first live session starts. Details are in our Terms.