Chemical process simulation is one of the most fundamental skills that is expected from chemical engineers, yet relatively few graduates have the opportunity to learn, in depth, how a process simulator works, from programming the unit operations to the sequencing. The University of Calgary offers a "hands-on" postgraduate course in Chemical Engineering that gives students an opportunity to learn about how a simulator works, by building their own, fully functioning process simulator. This paper describes the organisation of the course, construction of a chemical process simulator using VBA, as built into Microsoft [R] Excel as the programming platform, the assessment of student progress and finally, and it evaluates the course format from both the instructor and the student point of view.