Course overview
Over three days you will build a genuine understanding of how Claude works, learn to produce professional outputs consistently, and construct a personal Claude operating system built entirely on your own real work.
You will understand the models, master prompting, set up persistent Projects, install and configure Skills that extend what Claude can do, and use Cowork to automate real tasks on your own files.
This course goes at a pace that lets things land. Every session includes hands-on practice using your own documents, your own tasks and your own workflows. You do not leave with a notebook full of ideas. You leave with a working system.
Who's It For?
Small business owners and founders
who have experimented with Claude and want to build real systems rather than continue experimentingDirectors and managers
who use AI tools regularly but have never had structured depth on how Claude specifically worksProfessionals integrating Claude
who have seen what it can do and want to understand how to unlock it properly for their own workAnyone value conscious
who suspects they are leaving significant time and resources on the table every week they stay at the prompting level
Job outcomes
- Claude Specialist
What you'll learn
By the end of this course, you will be equipped to use Claude confidently across everyday business writing, research and summarising tasks. Expect to work more consistently inside Projects, produce better outputs first time, check AI responses sensibly, and take practical prompts and workflows back into your own role.
Working confidently with Claude
Understand what Claude does well, how to prompt it effectively, and how to get reliable results for real tasks.
Projects and organised work
Set up Projects to keep related work, context and instructions together for faster, more consistent output.
Everyday business writing
Draft, edit and summarise emails, documents and reports to a higher standard in less time.
Research and analysis
Use Claude to gather, structure and make sense of information to support better decisions.
Safe, sensible use
Recognise the limits of AI, check its output, and handle data responsibly at work.
Study method
- In-class
- Blended
- Online
- Virtual
Locations
- Scotland
- Edinburgh
- England
- London
- Manchester
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Duration study load
3 days 9am-5pm
Delivery
Course outline
Go from Claude fundamentals to a practical, connected business setup. You will build confidence step by step, then apply the tools to real writing, research, analysis and workflow tasks you can use immediately.
Day 1
Claude, Prompting and System Prompts
You understand how Claude works, why your outputs have been inconsistent, and how to fix that permanently. By the end of the day you have rebuilt your most-used prompts and written a production system prompt on your own task.
Claude and the model landscape
The Claude interfaces: Chat, Cowork, Chrome, Excel and PowerPoint — what each surface does and when to use it
Models: Opus, Sonnet and Haiku — the differences that matter in daily business use
How Claude processes context: what it sees in any given request and why that determines output quality
Claude versus other AI tools: the real differences for business owners
Prompting for professional outputs
Why Claude outputs are inconsistent — and the structural reasons behind it
The anatomy of a high-performing prompt: role, context, task, format and constraints
Writing prompts that produce usable results first time
Diagnosing outputs that are off-track, vague or wrong — and correcting them in the moment
Hands-on: rebuild three prompts you currently use and test the improvement side by side
System prompts
What system prompts are and why every serious Claude user needs them
Writing system prompts that encode your voice, standards and methodology permanently
The difference between a prompt instruction and a system-level instruction — and when each applies
Hands-on: write a production system prompt for your most frequently-used task
Day 2
Memory, Projects and Skills
Claude now knows who you are and how you work. You have built a persistent Project on real content and installed Skills that extend what Claude can do — including one you built yourself.
Memory
How Claude builds memory from your conversations — what it retains and how
What to curate actively: working preferences, recurring tasks, communication style, business context
What to prune: outdated information, wrong assumptions, old project context
Hands-on: review, edit and strengthen your Claude memory bank
Projects
What Projects are, how they differ from standard conversations, and why they matter
The three components: system instructions, knowledge files and conversation structure
What belongs in system instructions versus knowledge files — and the two failure modes to avoid
Building a Project that another person could use without you explaining it
Hands-on: build a complete Project using your own business content as the material
Skills
What Skills are and how the trigger system works
The Skills catalogue: categories available and what is most useful for business owners
Installing a Skill, configuring it for your context, and verifying it fires correctly
Adapting a standard Skill to your specific business, voice and working standards
Building a simple custom Skill from scratch — demonstrated live by the instructor, then hands-on
Hands-on: install three Skills relevant to your daily work, configure each one, test against real tasks
Day 3
Cowork and Build Day
Cowork is running on your own files. Then the day is yours: three hours of supervised building, using your own real work, with the instructor on hand throughout. You leave with a working Claude system, not a plan for one.
Cowork
How Cowork differs from Chat — a working session rather than a conversation
The task loop: Describe, Plan, Execute, Steer — and where most new Cowork users go wrong
Context front-loading: how to set up a task so it runs without going off-track
File and document automation: reading, writing, restructuring and extracting from your own desktop files
Research and analysis at scale: multi-step research running autonomously
Hands-on: complete a real two-step Cowork task on something you need done this week
Build
Planning the five to seven workflows that should run on Claude in your business
Setting build goals before the session starts — declared to the group
Supervised build: three hours constructing your personal Claude operating system on real work
Instructor circulates throughout to review, challenge and improve what you are building
Demo round: every delegate presents their system to the group and receives peer feedback
Entry requirements
An active Claude account
Pro plan recommended and required for Projects, Skills and Deep ResearchSome familiarity with Claude
or another AI chat tool — this is not an introduction to AIA working laptop
with access to your own working files and documentsNo technical background required
Course features
On Day 3 delegates leave with a full toolbox ready to immediately apply to their own projects. At a minimum you will have:
A personal prompt library
of rebuilt and tested prompts for their most-used tasks
A production system prompt
encoding their voice and working standards
Two or three complete Projects
with system instructions and knowledge files, tested on real work
Three Claude Skills
installed, configured and tested — at least one adapted to their specific business context
A completed Cowork automation
running on a real business task they needed done this week
A working personal Claude operating system
five to seven workflows, built and tested on Day 3
Subjects
About AI First Training
AI First Training is the UK's dedicated Claude training company. We teach one tool, and we teach it properly. Most AI training spreads thin across many tools and leaves teams dabbling. We go deep on Claude, because depth is what changes how people actually work. Our flagship is Claude in 3 Days: a three-day, hands-on intensive capped at ten people, run in person in London and live online. Day one covers Claude, prompting, and system prompts.Day two covers Memory, Projects and Skills. Day three is Cowork and a Build Day, where each delegate builds working tools of their own. We also run one-day courses built around specific roles, including Claude for Sales, Marketing, Design and small business owners, plus bespoke in-house training shaped around a team's own work. The approach comes from a long training background. Founder Mark Young spent more than a decade running one of the UK's leading creative and software training companies, delivering classroom training to large brands and in-house teams across the country. AI First Training brings that same classroom-led, hands-on method to Claude. The focus is always on the outcome your business needs, with the depth of a single tool underneath. Delegates leave able to use Claude in their day-to-day work.
