Your business is producing incredible amounts of data on a daily basis: about customers, user experience, web traffic, marketing effectiveness, and more.
And while businesses have always relied on some form of data analysis to make decisions, many are now struggling under this enormous mass of data.
To overcome this challenge, the most successful businesses are upskilling their top talent to take on new technical roles where they can unlock the power of all this data.
This is where a data analyst apprenticeship can help.
Specifically, our Level 4 Data Analyst Apprenticeship is a nationally recognised programme that covers the collecting, managing and analysing of data for business insight.
It runs over 13 months, and includes 20% off-the-job training, enabling a blended approach between theory and practical learning so staff can learn their craft within the context of their own business.
In this blog post, we explore the business benefits of upskilling your staff with the Data Analyst Apprenticeship. Not only will you be able to tease out actionable insights from all that data you produce, but the benefits extend to people and performance too.
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1- Fill your skills gap
If your business is struggling to fill the widening skills gap, you're not alone.
Finding people with the necessary skills to turn your company into a data-driven organisation is not always easy. With Al and other emerging technologies evolving all the time, the jobs that need to be done are changing, and so are the skills needed to do them.
A limited talent pool means companies must invest more in enabling their workforce to upskill. And they need to start now. Even non-technical roles, like HR. Marketing and Sales are requiring a data-driven approach.
The most forward-thinking companies are turning to apprenticeships to equip their staff with the advanced data analysis skills that will enable them to produce actionable insights for the business.
2. Improve business performance
How great would it be if you could make decisions based on real-time data about your company performance?
A data analyst apprenticeship will equip your staff with the ability to convert raw data into projects, predictions and trends so that you can make better decisions for your business - and faster.
Your staff will learn how to:
- Process and drive insight from big data so you can improve customer acquisition and retention, create more targeted marketing campaigns and predict sales trends.
- Build and implement machine learning models so you can improve your business processes and solve problems in real-time.
- Use advanced statistical analysis to identify potential risks and create smarter strategies to mitigate them.
As data volumes continue to increase, the promise for companies is growing exponentially. Upskilling your staff with a data analyst apprenticeship could therefore be an excellent opportunity for your business.
Apprenticeships are also heavily weighted towards practical experience, and your staff will learn all these skills in the context of your business through the completion of real-world projects. The result? Your staff won’t just know the theory. They’ll know precisely how to make their new knowledge and tools work for your business.
3. Improve productivity levels
Investing in your staff can improve engagement - and engaged employees are more productive.
One of the biggest benefits of apprenticeships is that they help organisations keep their employees motivated and engaged by providing new opportunities for learning and development. And companies with highly engaged employees are found to outperform those without by 202%.
In fact, 80% of employers who employ apprentices agree they make their workplace more productive.
4. Improve talent retention
It’s true that if you invest in your people, they're more likely to want to stick around.
94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development. And 80% of companies who invest in apprenticeships for their staff report a significant increase in employee retention.
By equipping your staff with new skills through a data analyst apprenticeship, you acknowledge their worth in your business and inspire their loyalty.
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5. Save on the costs (and stress) of recruitment
Even when you have a wide pool of candidates to choose from, recruiting new staff can be costly and come with risks.
Upskilling your existing staff is a great way to ensure your organisation has the skills and capabilities you need. What’s even better is that if your organisation is currently paying into the apprenticeship levy, enrolling your staff on the Data Analyst Apprenticeship will cost you nothing. That’s right - £0.
If your company has staff costs of over £3 million, then you will be paying 0.5% of your salary bill into a ring-fenced pot that can be claimed back within 24 months and used for training on approved apprenticeship schemes.
Even if you’re a non-levy paying business, the Government will still fund 95% of the apprenticeship, meaning you only need to pay a maximum of £750 per learner. Better yet, you may be able to have the levy transferred from a larger organisation who isn’t using theirs.
Why an apprenticeship over other training programmes?
You may be thinking about upskilling your staff but wondering whether an apprenticeship is the right way to go. Here’s why the Data Analyst Apprenticeship may offer a better solution than other corporate training courses.
First, enrolling your staff onto the apprenticeship is free for levy-paying companies, and comes at a significantly reduced cost for non-levy paying customers.
A corporate training course, on the other hand, can cost you thousands and your employees may not get an industry-recognised qualification or certificate to show for it.
Second, apprenticeships are highly regulated and held to a high-quality standard by both Ofsted and ESFA. And this isn’t the case for all corporate training courses.
What’s also important is how apprenticeships fit into the wider economic and social context. They form part of the ongoing conversation about closing the widening digital skills gap in the UK, and therefore a lot of commitment goes into ensuring they cover the most up to date and relevant data analysis skills.
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Summary
Enrolling your staff on the Data Analyst Apprenticeship is a fantastic opportunity to build the internal skills you need to find actionable insights from the masses of data your business generates.
The benefits for your business include plugging the skills gap - while saving you money on recruitment - as well as improvements in performance, productivity and talent retention. What’s even better is that you can get all this for free thanks to the apprenticeship levy.
Make an enquiry below to find out more and someone on our team will get back to you with all the info you need to get started with our data apprenticeship programmes.