Introduction
BCS qualifications help you identify gaps in your skills and understanding of business analysis and find appropriate training that targets keys skills and proficiencies.
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Start a career in business analysis
Is business analysis the right career for me?
Exciting career
Business analysis is an exciting career path that offers challenging, rewarding work as well as the opportunity for career growth. Business analysts often among senior staff and are treated to a unique, ‘birds eye view’ perspective of the organisation.
Working as a business analyst can make you feel you are an integral part of an organisations, planning, development, and growth.
If you can work in a role unrelated to business analysis, there are many ways in which your skills and knowledge might make you an ideal candidate for a business analyst role.
What do business analysts do?
Business analysts serve as advisors to developers, managers, and organisations. They use statistical analysis techniques to gather, interpret and share information in meaningful ways.
Business analysts identify and evaluate potential improvements to business systems. They help internal stakeholders define their business needs so that they may be turned into a new products or systems which helps the organisation meets its business goals.
Some of the responsibilities of business analysts include:
1. Investigating and evaluating business systems
Analysts assess current organisational structures, systems, and processes, then identify potential improvements.
2. Assessing staff development needs
Business analysts identify training opportunities which help staff align their skills with any proposed process or IT system redesigns.
3. Writing business cases
Business analysts help project managers justify budgets by using data to weigh the costs, benefits, risks, and timescales for any given project.
Industry knowledge
Business analysis is the natural career progression path for many of those employed as developers or project managers. However, it is also possible to begin a business analyst career if you have prior experience in any industry and have a bachelor’s degree in any subject.
If you don’t have in-depth knowledge of an industry, you’ll want to consider what you can offer to an employer. This might be technical knowledge, knowledge of specialised tools or organisational expertise.
Most business analyst roles in the UK job market require candidates to have a business analyst qualification, which is where BCS qualifications can help you.
Transferable skills
Many of the soft skills required by business analysts are easily transferable from other roles, so if you are thinking of changing career, it’s quite possible that you have already developed some of these skills.
Here are just a few of these transferable skills:
- Communication
- Influencing
- Team working
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving
- Leadership.
Starting roles
Expect to start your business analyst career in a junior role. Junior business analysts work with colleagues and other stakeholders to investigate operational issues, problems, and new opportunities, contributing to improvements to business processes and IT systems.
Junior analysts must be able to understand the purpose and benefits of modelling techniques to represent a range of business areas and systems of interest. Average UK salary: £32,500 p/a.[1]
Further reading
What are the benefits of BCS Business Analysis qualifications?
Industry-standard
BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT) offers a range of internationally recognised business analysis qualifications, which are considered an industry-standard in the business analyst profession.
BCS Business Analysis qualifications are instantly recognisable to many recruiters and employers in the UK.
BCS offers a career pathway for business analysts starting with junior roles, and moving on up to advanced roles.
Qualifications offered include introductory courses tailored to entry-level business analyst roles, intermediate training modules to help associate business analysts refine their skills and expert-level qualifications for senior analysts.
Further reading
How can BCS qualifications help me start a career in business analysis?
Qualifications
Earning a recognised business analysis qualification helps demonstrate your understanding of business analysis processes, methods, and techniques to potential employers.
Some roles in business analysis require successful candidates to have earned their BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis as a minimum requirement.
That is not to say all business analyst roles require a corresponding qualification, but at the very least, a business analyst qualification is an easy way to highlight your skills and enhance your CV.
Visit the BCS web site to learn more about how BCS qualifications can help support you on your chosen career path.
Further reading
Learn new skills to become a better business analyst
Become more proficient and confident as a business analyst
Filling in your skills gaps
If you’re currently employed as a business analyst, BCS Business Analysis qualifications can help you refine your skillset and learn new techniques to improve your existing skills.
BCS qualifications are designed to help candidates find gaps in their understanding of business analysis tools, practices, and techniques, identify training opportunities, and earn qualifications that demonstrate their abilities. In turn, this can boost your confidence in your skills as a business analyst and take on more challenging assignments.
Business analyst roles
Business analysts work to understand the needs of stakeholders, evaluate IT processes, and recommend how they might be improved. They investigate operational issues, problems, and new opportunities. They seek effective business solutions through improvements in aspects of business areas or systems of interest. Average UK salary: £40,000 p/a.[2]
Senior business analyst roles
Senior business analysts work to investigate business problems and opportunities, and specify changes to business processes, people skills, information, technology, structures, and roles. They work with senior business and IT stakeholders at a strategic level to assure the feasibility of proposed solutions. Average UK salary: £52,950 p/a.[3]
An industry standard
BCS qualifications are the UK industry-standard in the business analysis profession. Successful BCS candidates are known for their competence, skills, and proficiency in business analysis.
Earning BCS qualifications helps demonstrate your skills as a business analysis to recruiters and potential employers.
How can BCS qualifications help my career development?
Targeted qualifications
BCS qualifications are structured around the globally recognised standard SFIA framework. BCS members can use the SFIAplus tool to compare your current skills against the framework. This enables you to identify gaps in your knowledge and identify the BCS qualifications that can help support you on your career path.
Visit the BCS web site to learn more about how BCS qualifications can help support you on your chosen career path.
Further reading
Advance your career with a BCS qualification
Long-term professional development
The BCS training and certification scheme is unique in that it offers a complete solution to long-term career development.
BCS qualifications range from entry-level course designed to help those new to the profession, all the way to expert-level qualifications designed for practicing business analysts with years of applied experience in business analysis.
My CV looks so much better now thanks to getting my BCS Business Analyst International Diploma. Excited to see what happens in my career.
Business analyst proficiencies
BCS has designed its qualifications to align with the SFIA industry-standard skill framework. This framework looks at the proficiencies of business analyst at every level of in their career. It allows you to make quick and easy comparisons between yourself and others employed in similar roles.
Doing so can help you identify gaps in your skills and which BCS training module can help you improve your career.
Expert qualifications
BCS Professional, Consultant, and Expert-level diplomas are designed for senior business analysts who conduct complex business analyst activities. It enables them to showcase their advanced skills and demonstrate their capacity to influence high-level decision-making at a strategic level.
To qualify for advanced diplomas, you first need to acquire a BCS International Diploma in Business analysis.
Global employment opportunities
BCS qualifications are recognised internationally. Successful BCS candidates are known for their competence, skills, and proficiency in business analysis.
Earning your BCS qualification helps demonstrate your skills as a business analysis to recruiters and potential employers.
About our training
Knowledge Train is an accredited training organisation for BCS Business Analysis.
Trainers
Our trainers have years of applied experience in business analysis, and the skills needed to help others learn from their experience.
We hire trainers who can engage and motivate students and help them learn from their considerable experience.
Our rigorous selection process for trainers and ongoing improvements means you can be assured you’ll get the best learning experience available.
For more information about available instructor-led BCS Business Analysis courses, see our BCS Business Analysis courses page. For information about self-paced BCS Business Analysis online courses, see our BCS Business Analysis online courses page.
References
[1] Bcs.org, 2022. Junior Business Analyst. [Online] Available at: https://www.bcs.org/it-careers/business-analysis/business-analyst-career-pathway/junior-business-analyst/ [Accessed 13 June 20022].
[2] Bcs.org, 2022. Business Analyst. [Online] Available at: https://www.bcs.org/it-careers/business-analysis/business-analyst-career-pathway/business-analyst/ [Accessed 13 June 20022].
[3] Bcs.org, 2022. Senior Business Analyst. [Online] Available at: https://www.bcs.org/it-careers/business-analysis/business-analyst-career-pathway/senior-business-analyst/ [Accessed 13 June 20022].
