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Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) is launching a Data Academy for 35 of its staff members in a bid to enhance employee experience, maintain student satisfaction and grow student numbers.

By building a data-driven culture in areas such as admissions and academic registry, upskilled employees will support in achieving some of the university’s strategic milestones, including retaining its place as a top 10 university in National Student Survey student satisfaction rankings.

Training is being delivered by Multiverse, a tech company that identifies, closes, and prevents skills gaps, through personalised, on-the-job learning. Multiverse has trained more than 20,000 apprentices in AI, data, and digital skills since 2016.

According to Multiverse’s , the education sector has the highest rate of time lost to unproductive data tasks. For BNU, time-consuming manual processes previously impacted staff’s ability to spend time on more value-added tasks, while data silos led to inconsistent ways of working. By upskilling its employees in data, the university will be able to optimise processes and significantly increase productivity.

Employees will be enrolled on two Multiverse programmes. The Level 3 ‘Data & Insights for Business Decisions’ course will give staff the skills to understand data quality, apply automation to reduce silos and save time, while also managing organisational change and influencing behaviour across the organisation. The more advanced Level 4 ‘Data Fellowship’ will upskill university staff in computer programming, data modelling, integration, and analysis techniques, with an introduction to machine learning and predictive analytics.

Jon Lees, Academic Registrar at BNU, said: “At BNU, we are committed to investing in our staff talent. Our collaboration with Multiverse will help deliver on this, as we build our staff’s expertise and professional practice, and continuously improve our organisational effectiveness. As we launch our first cohort, we look forward to seeing positive change take place, led by data skills for the modern workplace.”

Multiverse combines work and learning to unlock economic opportunity for everyone. It works with more than 1,500 organisations to close critical skill gaps in the workforce through a new kind of apprenticeship.

Gary Eimerman, Chief Learning Officer at Multiverse said: “Buckinghamshire New University has a rich heritage in transforming student lives and has recognised how more effective data management has the potential to contribute to this. By investing in the development of its staff, Buckinghamshire will be able to accelerate progress in meeting its strategic objectives.”