When do you normally use the phrase " the couse of~" in the text?.

(I maybe wrong, but from what I understand, the phrase in question may be skipped and have no problem of delivering the intended meaning...), as shown in the below example.

ex)
The company faces major challenges over the course of the next few years.

(※ Native speakers only, please.)
Thank You.

See a translation

Yeah, I guess in a way you could skip it and still get the same rough meaning. So:
"...over the next few years."
"...over the course of the next few years."

"over the course of" makes it sound more formal and official, educated, important, etc. It's not really a phrase that's used in everyday conversation all that often. Leaving it out can make things sound a little more relaxed. Adding it can make things sound more formal/official. You see people use that trick in business meetings sometimes, even if it wasn't actually needed for the sentence but they wanted to sound more impressive.

However, I do think there is a nuance that it adds. It's sort of a "over/during the process of this thing" instead of a more general "somewhere over this period of time." Just like "over the course of this journey" or "over the course of this book". A sort of "as you go through this thing/process, that is what will happen", etc.