Edinburgh Napier University

Do you have decision-making responsibilities within your organisation, but and find it a challenge to decide what data you need and how to extract the most value from it? Are you interested in developing knowledge and life-long skills in business analytics, but are concerned about advanced mathematical aspects? 

This course will help you learn the essentials of business analytics and the practical skills to apply it to extract more value from your organisation’s data. You will understand how organisations create value from data and how, by applying descriptive, prescriptive, predictive, and strategic analytics you will enable your organisation to harness the value of data for decision making. As well, we will consider the ethical and cultural challenges you will have to overcome in your use of data use for business purposes. Limiting use of theory and advanced mathematics, the course will take a hands-on approach through software training with real cases and support you to implement your own analytics project.  

Additional information about the short course

The course will run over five half-day sessions. Thereafter, we will support you to scope, plan and implement a data and analytics project to create value for your business.

Learning Aims: 

• Explore how businesses exploit data as a core asset.
• Equip you with the knowledge and skills for analysing and interpreting data through effective visualisation techniques.
• Provide you a foundation of the methods for business forecasting that have wide applications in business.
• Introduce you to key optimisation techniques and illustrate their application to address resource trade-off problems that diverse business operations face.
• Discover how you can use analytics strategically for medium and long-term planning. 
• Critically discuss the challenges you will face when managing and using data, including legal, cultural, and ethical issues.
• Support you to scope, plan and implement a project to use analytics to improve an aspect of your business.

Entry requirements

• No formal entry requirements.
• The course will be hands-on, limiting use of theory and advanced mathematics. However, participants with a high degree of numerical confidence and familiarity with use of computer analysis tools such as spreadsheets will be best placed to benefit from the course.

How you'll be taught

Hybrid delivery as follows:

• You will attend five four-hour sessions fortnightly, comprising lectures, workshops and computer lab tutorials in-person at
• Craiglockhart campus. 
  Whilst support for implementing your own personal analytics project will be partly through in-person and online meetings, depending on your circumstances.

Assessments

There will be no assessments although quizzes will be used in the sessions to reinforce learning.

Start Date

05/06/2023

Course Content

• The value of data 
• Visualising data 
• Business Forecasting 
• Optimisation 
• Strategic Analytics, ethical and cultural challenges
• Support for Analytics project scoping, planning and implementation

Fees

£750 per attendee

If you have multiple bookings or wish to be invoiced, please contract Matthew Burdge m.burdge@napier.ac.uk.