Eleven members of Arden & GEM’s Business Intelligence team have successfully completed a six month development programme to improve their analytical knowledge and skills.
The Analytics Capability Development Programme is now in its second year and the latest cohort started in September 2022. The programme is delivered by in-house trainers, including participants from the 2021 cohort, and includes six core modules in addition to technical training sessions on topics such as Tableau, SQL and Python:
- Curiosity and active listening
- Agile development and programming
- Problem solving and advanced analytics
- Domain knowledge and presentation
- Visualisation and storytelling with data
- Team management and leadership.
The programme is designed to ensure that members of the department, from graduates to team leaders, all have a rounded analytics skillset that will enable them to thrive in their current roles, pursue career development opportunities and deliver the highest quality service to our clients.
“I am with Arden & GEM on a work placement as part of my degree. The main thing I wanted to get out of this work placement is to gain and develop skills and have experiences that would help me in getting and working in a graduate job once I go back and finish my final year at university, and I strongly feel that the Analytics Capability Development Programme has helped me in achieving that.”
Sophie Ahmed – BI Analyst on a student work placement
In addition to recognising the need for modern analysts to have the right technical, personal and team skills, the programme is also focused on the importance of being able to apply those skills to real world problems. A key part of the programme was working in teams to develop a proof of concept solution in one of the following areas which culminated in a hackathon judging event:
- Investigating children and young people’s health inequalities
- Understanding the prevalence of long term conditions.
Participants were able to consult with colleagues from across the department and wider customer base to develop their proof of concept which has supported longer term multidisciplinary working. The concepts were then presented to a panel of judges from the executive and leadership team, and are now being taken forward as part of business as usual dashboard development cycles.
As well as upskilling individuals, the programme has also increased collaborative working and knowledge sharing within the wider department through incorporating the hackathon exercise.
Programme participants were identified through Personal Development Plans and invited to submit an application with the support of their line manager. Cohort three will begin in May 2023.
“The layout of each module was very well planned to keep participants alert and engaged. As well as learning new tools that will support me in understanding and engaging with team projects, I have also applied course knowledge within a live proof of concept I was tasked with. I have highly recommended the programme to colleagues as a way of learning new things and helping to understand processes.”
Andrew Savage, Principal Information Analyst