Kent Business School is the exclusive provider of the education component of the Level 7 Higher Degree Apprenticeship (HDA) agreement with HMRC, the contracting organisation for the Government Operational Research Service (GORS), with courses starting now in January 2022.
Degree and higher degree apprenticeships are a partnership between the University and employers. Apprentices are employed and paired with experienced staff in order to learn relevant skills. In this case, up to 100% of training costs can be covered by the apprenticeship levy or by government co-investment.
The HDA contract was awarded to the Business School at the end of August. The HDA will equip learners with the full range of operational research (OR) skills and knowledge needed by different job roles within GORS, including data analytics, machine learning, time series forecasting, optimisation, simulation and spreadsheet modelling, project management and Soft OR.
GORS employees on the course will benefit from teaching by an experienced and internationally regarded team of OR academic staff, one-to-one support, self-directed learning activities and assignments, as well as residential sessions and other activities to enhance the learning experience. On successful completion of the end-point assessment, apprentices will be awarded an apprenticeship qualification and (subject to the work-based project report meeting requirements of a dissertation research project) an MSc Business Analytics degree.
“We are really excited to be working with GORS on the rollout of the new Operational Research Specialist HDA. We see the HDA providing mutual value to GORS and KBS. GORS will gain from apprentices coming on to enhance their OR knowledge and skills through research led teaching that can then be directly applied within their departments. KBS, meanwhile, will benefit by forming new links and opportunities with government, hopefully leading on to real-world impact through improved analysis, planning and decision making,” says Jesse O’Hanley, Head of Department of Analytics, Operations & Systems, Kent Business School.
The University of Kent has delivered higher apprenticeships since 2011, working with industry-leading employers across a variety of industry sectors and public organisations. For more information, visit http://www.kent.ac.uk/apprenticeships