The Salford Fast Track Digital Data Academy

The Salford Fast Track Digital Data Academy is a brand new 20-week course designed to develop the next generation of data analysts.

Skilled data analysts are some of the most sought-after professionals in the world. Because the demand is so strong, and the supply of people who can truly do this job well is so limited, data analysts can command good salaries.

Designed in collaboration with key employers, the course will develop your skills of data analysis and data visualization. Partially delivered online and also face-to-face at Mediacity, the course begins in October and applications forms will be available from this site in September.

Applications are now closed. Successful applicants will be contacted by Wednesday 7th October. Due to the number of applications received we are unable to respond to those unsuccessful, but we do thank you for your interest in the programme and wish you all the best for your future career.

Digital Landscape

Digital transformation is radically transforming long standing practices within all businesses and companies are recognising the importance of Big Data as a source to gain insights and make informed decisions in this fast-changing environment.

The functions of job roles are moving from data collecting and reporting, to analysing and future-proofing data and businesses need the skills amongst their staff to reflect this.

Our proposed new specialist industrial programme is designed to produce professionals with the specialised knowledge and skills to meet the gap in data analysis and thus enable them to gain a competitive business advantage.

Academy Overview

The course seeks to combine the learning of complex technical skills with a wider programme of skills development within a working environment.

Key features include:

Free course for participants
Flexible learning with some online delivery (webinars)
Short classroom sessions
Opportunity to work on real-life workplace-based scenarios

Data Analysis Overview

Students will be provided with an introduction to Data Analytics and its role in business decisions. They will be introduced to a framework for conducting Data Analysis and what tools and techniques are commonly used. They will learn how to amplify data preparation, quickly and easily create better models, put their most effective models into application, reduce the opportunity for personal bias, and plan more effectively for the future.

Job-specific Data Analysis

They will learn job-specific data analysis tools and the underlying concepts and processes of data integration. Participants will also learn about different types of data (including open and public data, administrative data, and research data), data lifecycles, structured and unstructured data, data structures, data architecture, and understand the importance of the domain context of data analytics.

Real business scenarios

Students will have the chance to put their knowledge to work in a simulated business setting during the planned collaborative “live brief” session and will be able to realise the impact of their data driven insights as they translate to real business decisions. Their work will be given informal feedback and assessment by industry professionals.

Data insights

This course enables participants to explore and analyse past results, answer today’s business questions, and model and predict what might happen tomorrow. Students will learn how Data Analytics can provide customer insights, marketing optimization, targeted marketing, fraud detection, anti-money laundering, risk management and information security analysis.

Academy Outcomes

The course will prepare participants with the skills and tools to have a baseline understanding of five core data competencies:

Programming
Statistics
Machine learning
Data mining (the refining of raw data)
Data visualisation

The training led by the University of Salford will consist of approximately 90 hours of training. The majority of the content will be delivered virtually, with lab-based content facilitated at the University MediaCityUK.

As some of the participants will be relatively new to some of the technical areas, learning assessments will take place at the start of the programme to assess individual learning needs and styles and the programme, where appropriate, adapted accordingly.

Within a month, all participants who successfully complete the course will be invited to a guaranteed interview for available roles by BUPA and potentially Salford City Council – and with two of the other partners, TalkTalk and Sodexo. Where there are no vacant roles, they will provide a mock interview and assessment scenario.

Our Partners

Members in the employer consortium are BUPA, Salford City Council, Sodexo, TalkTalk and the BBC.

Contact

Get In Touch

Have any questions? Please get in touch and we'll be happy to help.

Salford Fast Track Digital Data Academy

Email: dataacademy@salford.ac.uk