With there now being several ways for business analysts to build skills and knowledge in the workplace, It is completely reasonable to seek out the benefit of professional training and question how much more value could it really bring to your work? It is an undeniable truth that business analysis training comes at a price, often a large one, and this can concern many individuals whether this money spent is truly an effective investment for their career?

Being a training provider, there are 3 key things that both; we and past trainees, have seen as a great outcome of business analysis training:

• Confidence
• A structured framework for BA knowledge
• Career progression

Confidence

Of course in many workplaces there are other more experienced senior BAs who have done a lot of BA work before on similar projects. So you have the opportunity to learn from them and understand how to approach tasks. However, the problem with this is that you then become dependent on these senior colleagues to give you time to learn about the role and understand it.

This can often leave you second-guessing and being unsure of your own decisions and approaches. Professional business analysis training works to steer you away from this overdependence by building your skillset with industry-approved techniques. Thus, ultimately increasing your confidence in your own ability as a business analyst to lead projects.

“Completing an apprenticeship has really made a difference to my confidence, improved my job satisfaction and really made a difference to the projects that I am leading. It has improved my leadership skills and the depth of my technical knowledge.” – Jodie, Business Analyst, Coventry City Council

“I already had a lot of business analysis skills but doing the diploma re-enforced and really gave me the confidence that – this is the right way of doing things. I am now confident that what I am doing is, in fact, the accepted model of tackling problems.” – Angela, Business Analyst

A structured framework for BA knowledge

A lot of companies don’t have the experienced senior BAs or are limited in the numbers that they do have. This can make it difficult to implement such a knowledge sharing environment in the workplace.

This is where business analysis training can be useful in guiding you. It provides you with a structured framework and essentially a process to follow when working on projects.

As a business analyst, your role will involve working across multiple projects that may sit at different stages of a typical project lifecycle. Professional training will develop your understanding of where you sit within each project, what a typical project lifecycle looks like, where you are expected to be involved and where you could be involved. The theory works hand in hand with practical application and essentially trains you to meet the expectations of your role.

“If they don’t have other BAs to talk to, to understand the role and what the expectations are, then I’d recommend the diploma for sure. It’ll give them a good long-term view of what a BA actually does, what value they offer to organisations, where they sit and the type of work they can do” – Rory, Business Analyst

“It’s easy to work in a business analysis role without understanding how to connect all the moving parts together, like joining up the dots. However, my apprenticeship has helped me to bring all those things together, developing my business and personal skills and Business Analysis knowledge to another level.” – Harpal, Business Analyst

Career progression

It’s become common for companies to hire internally from their own staff when vacancies in higher positions are available. Despite this, as important as the soft skills are for the right candidate, many companies still require formal qualifications.

You may have the skills to work effectively as a business analyst, but the only thing preventing you from moving up the career ladder in your organisation is your lack of accreditation.
Taking on professional BA training fills these gaps and helps you to build a stronger candidate profile for yourself. With the right certifications, you will be in a better position to secure a promotion.

“I did the diploma over the past couple of years. It’s definitely helped me in terms of the progression of my role. I’ve been able to progress into a senior consultant position” – Rory, Business Analyst

“So, when I started I was in a junior BA role and that has changed now to BA. Having had the knowledge from the courses, that enabled me to make a good case for promoting my role so I have now gone up a level.” – Angela, Business Analyst

If you would like to find out more about business analysis training and if it is the right choice for you, get in touch