Course 1 · Beginner · 1 day

AI at Work.

A hands-on day for working professionals. No code, no jargon — just five free tools, three workflows, and a structured way to think about prompting that you'll still use in a year.

Cape Town, in-person only · 09:00–15:00 · Max 14 seats · Certificate of completion ·

Who it's for

The curious professional who hasn't found a way in yet.

You've heard about ChatGPT. You may have even tried it. But you don't yet have a clear, repeatable way of using AI for the actual work you do every week. This day is for you. Bring your own laptop.

Knowledge workers

Managers, consultants, analysts, founders, lawyers, accountants, marketers — anyone whose week is mostly meetings, documents, and decisions.

Curious individuals

You don't need a tech background. If you can use a browser and switch between tabs, you're ready. We don't write code, ever.

Team leads sent to scout

Coming back to brief your team on what's real, what's hype, and what to roll out next quarter. You'll leave with a clear answer.

Who this isn't for: ML engineers shipping models to production. The day will feel too gentle. We're firmly in the non-technical professional space.

What you'll leave with

Three workflows, five tools, one mental model.

  • A mental model for prompting — the four ingredients (Goal, Inputs, Constraints, Examples) you'll use for the rest of your career.
  • A clear sense of which tool to use when — Copilot for inside-Microsoft, Claude for thinking, NotebookLM for documents, Gemini for Google, Notion AI for capture.
  • Three working workflows — built by you, on real workplace tasks, that you'll keep using the following week.
  • A POPIA-aware way of working — what to put in, what to keep out, and how to talk to your IT team about it.
  • A printed cheat sheet — the prompt patterns and tool decision tree on one A4 page.
  • A 30-day plan — what to try in week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, so this becomes a habit not a memory.
  • A Proven Path certificate of completion — issued after a short knowledge check at the end of the day.
  • Geoff's email for follow-up questions — for the week after class. Use it.
The day, hour by hour

Agenda — 09:00 to 15:00

Times are indicative and may shift by ±10 minutes on the day. Theory is split into short bursts between exercises so nobody dies in a lecture chair. Bring your own laptop. Lunch is BYO — 45 minutes, with cafés inside the V&A Waterfront 5 minutes from the venue.

TimeBlock
09:00 – 09:15Welcome · trainer intro · the day in 60 seconds
09:15 – 09:45Theory 1. How AI actually works — tokens, prediction, hallucinations, the R-CICF prompt formula
09:45 – 10:30Exercise 1. Claude — careful drafting in three tones, with R-CICF
10:30 – 10:45Coffee break
10:45 – 11:00Theory 2. Generative vs Agentic vs Agents
11:00 – 11:30Exercise 2. Microsoft Copilot — in-app productivity in Outlook / Word
11:30 – 11:40Theory 3. Key acronyms (LLM · RAG · API · MCP · POPIA · PII)
11:40 – 12:20Exercise 3. NotebookLM — digest a long thread with citations
12:20 – 13:05BYO lunch — 45 minutes (cafés a 5-min walk away)
13:05 – 13:20Theory 4. Security, compliance & today's AI risks — staying inside your corporate AI guidelines
13:20 – 13:50Exercise 4. Gemini — multimodal (image, voice, translate)
13:50 – 14:20Exercise 5 · ADVANCED. Build your own AI agent on Gemini Gems (free tier)
14:20 – 14:35Capstone. Notion — your personal AI Toolkit (yours forever)
14:35 – 14:55Final test (10 questions, 20 min, 7/10 to pass)
14:55 – 15:00Reflection · feedback survey · certificates
The toolkit

Five free tools. Pick the right one for the job.

You don't need to buy anything. We work in free tiers across all five tools — and a setup email goes out 48 hours before class with account-creation instructions.

01

Microsoft Copilot

For when your work lives inside Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams.

02

Anthropic Claude

For thinking, drafting, and long-form reasoning. The patient one.

03

Google NotebookLM

For learning from your own documents. Upload, ask, summarise.

04

Google Gemini

For when your work lives in Google Docs, Sheets, Gmail, Calendar.

05

Notion AI

For capturing, structuring, and revisiting your own knowledge.

Investment

R2,500 TTC in-person per seat.

≈ €125 / $125 per seat — indicative, divided at R20 = €1 / $1.

One price. Coffee, materials, certificate — all included. Lunch is BYO during the 45-minute break (cafés inside the V&A Waterfront, 5 minutes from the venue). In-person only — this is what makes the day work.

What's included

  • One full day of training (09:00–15:00)
  • Coffee, tea, water and a mid-morning snack
  • Printed cheat sheet + 30-day plan
  • Knowledge check + certificate of completion
  • Email follow-up access for one week after the course

Group & in-house

Bringing 4 or more people from the same organisation, or your whole team for an in-house session? Contact info@proven-path-academy.com for a tailored quote.

International participants & non-Rand payments are welcome — we'll send specific invoicing instructions in your currency.

Talk to us about in-house