Analyst Pathway

ICAEW Data Analytics Certificate

Data analytics and data science skills are showing the biggest growth in demand from employers, and finance professionals are perfectly placed to upskill in this area.

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Overview

The Analyst Pathway is tailored to finance professionals who want to develop their data analytics and visualisation skills. This course guides you through the data analytics process and gives you the knowledge and practical skills to be able to harness and make sense of data, and to understand what it means for the business. You’ll gain confidence in the use of data to solve business problems and learn how to communicate effectively to influence decision making.

Average duration¹

Approximately 60 hours

Assessments

One case study

Award

ICAEW Data Analytics certificate (Analyst Pathway)

¹The Analyst Pathway is about 40 hours of learning + 20 hours for the case study.

Who it’s for

This course is designed for finance professionals who want to develop their skills in data analytics so that they are able to provide evidence based decision support within their business and to clients. If you’re already confident working with data and have an enough understanding of the data analytics process and using Python for programming that you don’t need to undertake the whole course, we’ve created a case study only option, so you can still gain the Certificate to confirm your competence in this field.

If you’re a finance leader who’s seeking to understand the business benefits of applying data analytics, how to develop your operational data analytics capabilities and how to interpret the outputs from your data analytics team, the Management Pathway is more suited to you.

Kaplan’s award-winning OnDemand delivers learning on your terms. You study online at your own pace while following a structured path.

Learning outcomes

With many businesses only analysing a small portion of their data, this course equips you with the practical knowledge and tools to apply data analytics confidently and support evidence-based decision-making.

You’ll be able to:

Apply data analytics techniques to answer real-world business questions
Use predictive analytics to improve forecasting accuracy
Write Python code to clean, manipulate and analyse diverse data sets
Create impactful data visualisations to support and influence decisions

I chose to study the ICAEW certification as it opened up more opportunities in my training career and it benefits to have an internationally accredited certification.

Course content

Understanding business context

Learn how to define the business problem, structure a data analytics project, and identify the data and skills needed to solve it.

In this unit you’ll:

Apply the data analytics process to real business questions
Plan and set up an analytics project
Identify relevant data sources
Understand data architecture, management, quality and governance principles

Data wrangling

Develop practical skills in Python to work with raw data and get it ready for analysis.

In this unit you’ll:

Recognise different data types and structures
Use Python to import, manage and merge datasets
Identify and resolve data quality issues

Understanding and analysing data

Learn how to explore and understand data using statistical techniques and basic visualisations.

In this unit you’ll:

Use summary statistics to describe data
Create visualisations to support exploratory analysis

Data analysis and facilitating data-driven decision making

Build more advanced analytics skills to generate insights and support business decisions.

In this unit you’ll:

Apply time series forecasting techniques, including autoregression and smoothing
Understand anomaly detection methods
Explore the ethical considerations of AI and data analytics

Presenting findings and recommendations

Develop the skills to communicate insights clearly and effectively to stakeholders.

In this unit you’ll:

Present findings through clear narratives and visualisations
Tailor recommendations for business decision makers
Create impactful, professional data visualisations

Case study

The case study places you in the role of an analyst for a company. You’re tasked with identifying whether a target company is a good investment for a private equity firm. You’ll be provided with a high-level background to the “client” and the data set, and provided with business context.

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You’ll need to put into practice the analytical skills learned to support the investment decision.

There are two key tasks:

Analyse sales data to develop a method to forecast future sales using predictive techniques and make recommendations to management.
Identify control weaknesses, specifically looking at journals in the general ledger. You’ll be required to utilise data analytics techniques to identify anomalies in journals and report back your findings to management.

You’ll be required to communicate your findings effectively to both inform and influence the investment decision. Once you’ve successfully completed the case study, you’ll be awarded the ICAEW Data Analytics Certificate (Analyst Pathway).

Courses

Inc VAT

Full course

£838.80

Case study only

£418.80

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ICAEW member discount

Members are eligible for a discount on these courses, not compatible with any other offer.

Go to ICAEW and login

Enterprise licensing

Contact client solutions to purchase multiple courses for your team or organisation.

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Course includes

OnDemand course

An award-winning, flexible, online study option, that gives you the flexibility to study when and where you want, with unique online resources designed to give you structure, keep you motivated, and cement your understanding of the subject.

Instructional videosWatch step-by-step video tutorials that break down complex topics into manageable chunks, helping you build confidence and progress at your own pace.
Use casesExplore real-world business scenarios to see how data analytics is applied in practice, making the learning relevant and immediately applicable.
Practical exercisesReinforce your learning with interactive tasks that let you apply techniques as you go — perfect for building hands-on skills.
12 months’ access to Data Camp^*Contains 400+ other courses included in the course price. With courses covering technologies such as Python, R, Power BI, and Tableau for all levels of ability, you can continue to develop your data skills.
Case studyPut your knowledge to the test with a comprehensive case study that simulates a real management scenario, drawing on the tools and techniques you’ve learned.

^* Not included in the Case Study only course.

This course requires the use of Anaconda, which is a free and open-source distribution of the Python programming language and its related packages. View system requirements

All courses include

Personalised online study space - MyKaplan is an online learning portal that allows you to access additional online materials and take part in discussion forums in one place.

Learn more about MyKaplan