WHAT DOES THIS ROLE DO? Essentially, you’ll take mountains of data and probe it to spot trends, make forecasts, and extract information to help your employer make better-informed business decisions or in the case of machine learning, improve things like predictions and processes. HOW DO COMPANIES USE THIS AREA? It would be fair to say that each industry uses data for different purposes. In finance you may use data to look at patterns and develop predictions for investment, in health, you may be looking at test data for a new drug, or in the tech giants like Google or Facebook, big data analysis drives things like user profiles and advertising. WHY SHOULD I CHOOSE THIS CAREER PATH? If you like finding patterns in data or discovering insights that can help steer decision-making, then this could be a career to explore. Data analysts usually have a pretty dynamic skill set  –  they are good with numbers and details, but also confident and organised in managing multiple tasks.  You’ll also need to be able to present the data and insights on a regular basis to key business stakeholders. HOW DO I GET STARTED? Our MOOCs can provide you with some great taster sessions into how different companies use data and data programming. If this piques your interest, our Class in Data & SQL will give a great base-level understanding and skill set which can be great for business analyst roles. Taking it to the next level, we have our CFGdegree for those who wish to pursue a career in data. WHAT SORT OF ROLES ARE LINKED TO THIS CAREER PATHWAY? Most grads will go into business / data analyst roles and can progress into areas like machine learning, database engineer or administrator or data science.