SPSS Core Skills

SPSS is used extensively by academic researchers as a tool for quickly analysing quantitative data.

The SPSS Core Skills course will help you get to grips with the basics of this user-friendly software. You’ll learn how to successfully set-up SPSS data files, run statistical analyses (including graphs), and manipulate files and variables.

No statistical knowledge is required for this course as the focus of the session will be on the software rather than statistical theory.

Key content

  • Creating a new data set and entering data into SPSS
  • Importing data from sources such as Microsoft Excel
  • Defining variable properties, including value labels and missing value codes
  • Performing data transformations e.g. compute and recode variables
  • Calculating descriptive statistics and other statistical procedures
  • Brief introduction to charts and graphs

          Course objective

          This course will introduce participants to the core functions of the SPSS software.

          Who is the SPSS Core Skills workshop suitable for?

          This workshop is suitable for researchers who need to analyse statistical data, and require a user-friendly statistical package to facilitate this. New and existing users are welcome.

          The workshop is specifically for PC users only and SPSS 25 is used. We focus on the SPSS software, not statistical theory. Introductory statistics courses are offered in New Zealand by Academic Consulting. 

          Register for the SPSS Core Skills workshop

          University of Auckland staff can register for sessions on Career Tools. Students can refer to the registration page.

          Further SPSS training and resources

          You can find the best free SPSS resources under help/tutorials and case studies in your SPSS software. These are highly recommended resources that provide answers to questions like, "Why do I need to do it?", "How do I do it?" and "How do I interpret what I get back?".

          In addition, the following online courses are available to you for free:

          • You Tube
            • SPSS for Beginners 1: Introduction
            • Latest SPSS 24 Tutorials: Complete Stats Course in less than 60 minutes
            • And more…
          • Lynda.com (through Auckland Libraries)
            • SPSS Statistics Essential Training
            • SPSS for Academic Research

          A variety of SPSS resources are available on the Academic Consulting blog. You may also like to attend one of Academic Consulting’s chargeable online or facilitator led workshops.