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AI and Data Career Programme
From no experience to junior data analyst. Twelve courses covering applied AI, Excel, Power BI and Power Query, Python, cloud, data analysis and SQL, with three official Microsoft and CompTIA examinations included.
Programme Price
- Twelve courses, three official exams included
- Mentor, live Teams calls and recruitment support
- Pay in full or spread over up to 48 months
- Retake Cover Plan available from £3,399.00
This programme prepares you for junior data analyst and AI analyst roles. It is built around what UK employers actually ask for in entry level data adverts: Excel, SQL, Power BI and Power Query, working knowledge of Python, the ability to analyse data properly, and enough applied AI to be useful from day one.
Three official examinations are included: Microsoft AZ-900, CompTIA Data+ and CompTIA DataSys+. Power BI, Excel, Python and data privacy are included as full training courses alongside them, so you finish with the tools employers name in adverts as well as the certifications they recognise.
What this is not. It will not make you a data scientist or a machine learning engineer. Those roles typically need a degree, or several years of experience, along with further certifications on top of what is here, and no beginner programme leads straight into one. This is the route in, and those roles become reachable from it once you are working.
At A Glance
Quick Overview
Curriculum
What you will actually study
Twelve courses, ordered from the most approachable through to the most demanding. Each builds on the one before, which is why the sequence matters as much as the individual courses.
CompTIA Tech+
Training included, exam extraDigital and IT foundations: hardware and software concepts, networking basics, data fundamentals, security awareness and troubleshooting. The starting point if you have never worked in IT. Tech+ replaced ITF+ as CompTIA’s entry level certification.
Data Analysis Essentials
Training included, exam extraHow data analysis actually works in an organisation: where data comes from, how it gets cleaned, and how findings get communicated to people who will make a decision on them. Sits below Data+ and is genuinely beginner appropriate.
CompTIA AI Essentials
Training included, exam extraHow AI works, how organisations are actually using it, where it fails, and how to apply it responsibly. Concepts rather than maths, and no coding required.
CompTIA AI Prompting Essentials
Training included, exam extraPrompt engineering and working effectively with generative AI tools in real business scenarios. A practical skill employers are starting to test for at interview.
CompTIA Copilot 365 Essentials
Training included, exam extraMicrosoft 365 Copilot in a working environment. Most UK office workers will meet AI through Copilot before anything else, so knowing it well is immediately useful on day one of a job.
AI and Data Privacy
Training included, exam extraHow data protection law applies to analytics work, and what changes when AI is involved. UK GDPR, lawful basis, minimisation and the practical judgement calls an analyst makes about what data they should be handling at all. Employers in finance, healthcare and the public sector ask about this at interview.
Microsoft Excel Pro
Training included, exam extraFormulas, lookups, pivot tables, data modelling and dashboards, plus Power Query for importing and cleaning data. Excel is named in more UK entry level data job adverts than any other tool, and it is the one most career changers underestimate.
Introduction to Power BI
Training included, exam extraConnecting to data, cleaning and shaping it in Power Query, building a data model, and producing reports and dashboards people can actually use. Power BI appears in more UK junior data analyst adverts than any tool other than Excel and SQL, so this is the one that gets your CV past a screening filter.
Introduction to Python Programming
Training included, exam extraSyntax, data types, control flow, functions, and working with files and data. Not to make you a developer, but because automating the repetitive parts of analysis is what separates a competent analyst from a slow one.
Microsoft AZ-900, Azure Fundamentals
Official exam includedCloud concepts, core Azure services, management, governance and pricing. Most UK organisations you would work for run on Azure, so understanding where the data actually lives is no longer optional for an analyst.
CompTIA Data+
Official exam includedData concepts and environments, mining, analysis, visualisation, governance and quality. The core vendor neutral analyst certification and the one employers recognise by name. This is where the earlier courses come together.
CompTIA DataSys+
Official exam includedDatabase fundamentals, SQL querying, deployment, administration, security and business continuity. The most demanding course in the programme, taken last. SQL appears in more UK data analyst adverts than Python does, and this is where you learn it properly.
Why DataAI is not in this programme
DataAI, previously called DataX, is CompTIA’s data scientist certification at Xpert level. CompTIA’s own recommended starting point for it is a degree in mathematics, statistics or computer science plus around two years of experience, and it assumes working Python and R.
A beginner will not pass it, and including an exam voucher you cannot use would be selling you something worthless. We would rather spend that on three examinations you can pass and on the tools employers name in job adverts. DataAI is the right step in two or three years once you are working in a data role, and we will talk to you about it then.
Study time
220 to 260 hours of structured training
Starting point
No prior coding, data or IT experience needed.
Salaries
What the roles actually pay
Published UK figures with the source, so you can check them. Data salaries vary more by role than almost any area of IT, which is exactly why adverts in this space quote the top of the range.
Entry level data analyst, realistic first role
Published UK vacancy data, 2026
Data Analyst, UK average across all experience levels
Indeed UK and published vacancy analysis, June 2026
Data Engineer, not an entry level role
UK IT salary analysis, June 2026
Read those numbers carefully
An average is not a starting salary. With no prior experience your realistic first role sits in the lower band, and the average becomes achievable with a year or two behind you.
Domain knowledge counts for more here than in most IT roles. Employers hire analysts to understand their business, not just their tools. Whatever you did before — finance, retail, healthcare, logistics — is an asset rather than something to leave off the CV.
Certification improves your chances of being considered. It does not on its own set your pay. Anyone quoting you a specific salary for after a course is telling you something they cannot know.
How it works
How the programme runs
Online and self paced, with real people attached to it.
Study around work
Video lectures and materials available 24 hours a day on any device, with downloadable workbooks. Twelve months of access, most people finish in three to nine months.
A dedicated mentor
Your main point of contact throughout, by phone, email and video call. Not just someone to chase you: someone to work out which roles you should be targeting, what order to take the courses in, when you are actually ready to sit an exam, and whether the job you are aiming at is realistic from where you are standing. Most people who drop out of self paced study do so because nobody noticed they had stalled.
Live Teams calls with our team
Scheduled sessions covering study progress, where you are against your target completion date, what is coming next, and anything you have got stuck on. If you have fallen behind because of work or life, this is where we replan it rather than leaving you to quietly give up.
Practice before you commit
Scenario based exercises, mock exams and quizzes so you know whether you are ready before you book the real thing. Booking too early is the most common reason people fail a certification exam first time.
We've Got You
Recruitment support, included
It starts once your exams are passed, because a CV is a great deal easier to write when there are recognised certifications on it.
Professional CV review and rebuild
Written for data roles specifically, with your certifications front and centre and your previous career framed as domain knowledge rather than as a gap.
LinkedIn profile guidance
Most UK data recruitment starts with a recruiter searching LinkedIn. Being findable for the right terms matters more than most applicants realise.
Interview preparation
Technical questions on SQL, Excel and Power BI, and how to talk about what you have learned in plain English rather than jargon. Saying you built a dashboard that let a manager spot underperformance quickly lands better than listing the DAX measures you used, and this is where most candidates lose marks.
Job matching and application support
Identifying the right roles, understanding what an advert is really asking for, and applying consistently rather than in bursts.
Ongoing support
If you meet the programme conditions and have not secured a role, our recruitment support and career coaching continue until you do. Full conditions are in clause 12 of our terms.
What our guarantee is, stated plainly
It is a commitment to keep supporting your job search, not an offer of employment. We are not your employer and we cannot compel any company to hire you. Recruitment support improves how you present yourself and how consistently you apply. Read clause 12 before you enrol rather than after, and ask us anything that is not clear.
Investment
Price
One price, everything included. No registration fee and no charge to access mentor support.
Standard Plan
- All twelve courses in the programme
- Three exam vouchers: AZ-900, CompTIA Data+ and DataSys+
- Mentor support and live Teams calls throughout
- Full recruitment support
- 12 months access
- Pay in full or monthly up to 48 months
Retake Cover Plan
- Everything in the Standard Plan
- Free retake cover on applicable certification exams
- Worth having: with three examinations in the programme, first time pass rates are not 100%
- Pay in full or monthly up to 48 months
Monthly payment is arranged through Social Money Ltd trading as Dopple, authorised and regulated by the FCA under reference 675283, and is subject to status and affordability checks. You may be declined. Every cost, including the ones most providers bury, is listed on our credentials and evidence page.
FAQs
Common questions
Honest answers about the roles this prepares you for, what is included, and how payment works.
Not sure whether data is the right route for you?
Tell us what you did before and what you are trying to reach. Data suits people with strong domain knowledge from another career, and it does not suit everyone. If a different pathway fits you better, we will say so.