Data analyst
Digital
Level 4 -
Collect, organise and study data to provide business insight.
Reference: OCC0118
Status:
SOC 2020 sub unit groups:
- 3544/00 Data analysts
- 2133/02 Data architects
- 2433/04 Statistical data scientists
Technical Education Products
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Estee Lauder, UBS, Risual Ltd, Network Rail, DMG Media, University of West London
Summary
This occupation is found in any employer in any sector that uses data to make business decisions. Data analysts may work in various departments within a single employer, (for example finance, sales, HR, manufacturing, or marketing), and in any employment sector, public or private, including retail, distribution, defence, banking, logistics, media, local government etc.
The broad purpose of the occupation is to ascertain how data can be used in order to answer questions and solve problems. Data analysis is a process of requirement-gathering, inspecting, cleansing, transforming and modelling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse techniques under a variety of names. In today's world, data analysis plays a crucial role in making decisions more evidence-based and helping organisations operate more effectively.
For example: a data analyst may investigate social media trends and their impact on the organisation. In retail, a data analyst may break down sales figures to make recommendations on product placement and development. In HR a data analyst may investigate staff retention rates, in order to decide on recruitment strategy. In a hospital, a data analyst may investigate wait times for different departments, in order to provide a better service to its patients.
In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with internal or external clients. Internally, the data analyst may work with many people within their organisation, at different levels. Externally a data analyst may provide data analysis services to other organisations on behalf of their employer. Data analysts would normally be office based and work normal business hours.
An employee in this occupation will be responsible for the creation and delivery of their own work, to meet business objectives. The data analyst will be responsible for working within the data architecture of the company and ensuring that the data is handled in a compliant, safe and appropriately secure manner, understanding and adhering to company data policy and legislation. Data analysis is a fast-moving and changing environment, and data analysts need to continue to stay abreast of, and engaged with, changes and trends in the wider industry; including data languages, tools and software, and lessons learnt elsewhere.
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Estee Lauder, UBS, Risual Ltd, Network Rail, DMG Media, University of West London
Typical job titles include:
Keywords:
Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)
Duties
Duty D1
Identify data sources to meet the organisation's requirement, using evidence-based decision making to establish a rationale for inclusion and exclusion of various data sets and models
Duty D2
Liaise with the client and colleagues from other areas of the organisation to establish reporting needs and deliver insightful and accurate information
Duty D3
Collect, compile and, if needed, cleanse data, such as sales figures, Digital Twins etc. solving any problems that arise, to or from a range of internal and external systems
Duty D4
Produce performance dashboards and reports in the Visualisation and Model Building Phase
Duty D5
Support the organisation by maintaining and developing reports for analysis to aid with decisions, and adhering to organisational policy/legislation
Duty D6
Produce a range of standard and non standard statistical and data analysis reports in the Model Building phase
Duty D7
Identify, analyse, and interpret trends or patterns in data sets
Duty D8
Draw conclusions and recommend an appropriate response, offer guidance or interpretation to aid understanding of the data
Duty D9
Summarise and present the results of data analysis to a range of stakeholders, making recommendations
Duty D10
Provide regular reports and analysis to different management or leadership teams, ensuring data is used and represented ethically in line with relevant legislation (e.g. GDPR which incorporates Privacy by Design).
Duty D11
Ensure data is appropriately stored and archived, in line with relevant legislation e.g. GDPR
Duty D12
Practice continuous self learning to keep up to date with technological developments to enhance relevant skills and take responsibility for own professional development
Occupational Progression
This occupational progression map shows technical occupations that have transferable knowledge and skills.
In this map, the focused occupation is highlighted in yellow. The arrows indicate where transferable knowledge and skills exist between two occupations. This map shows some of the strongest progression links between the focused occupation and other occupations.
It is anticipated that individuals would be required to undertake further learning or training to progress to and from occupations. To find out more about an occupation featured in the progression map, including the learning options available, click the occupation.
Progression decisions have been reached by comparing the knowledge and skills statements between occupational standards, combined with individualised learner movement data.
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