Professional Discussion

What does your company do?

Data and insight drives critical investment decisions in the elderly and specialist care markets. Analytics platform drives decisions with speed and confidence. Advisory due diligence provides certainty on complex, high-value decisions.

What are your day-to-day responsibilities and duties?

My role focuses on ensuring accurate, timely, complete data. Homeview. Data research. Collab. Analytics testing

What is the benefit of data analysis to your company?

Revenue streams - sell licensed data, reports, platform subscriptions. Value to our clients - analytics platform and advisory reports drive decisions with certainty, speed and confidence.

What data types and formats do you work with?

Open data - care home registration data. Public data - Spanish development data from Alimarket. External data - care home weekly fees. Structured data - extract data from the database to analyse. Unstructured data - planning application documents. Qualitative data - specialist care primary uses. Quantitative data - number of beds, ensuites, wetrooms.

How is your data stored and what other options are available?

Hybrid framework. On-premises infrastructure (tin, core datasets, homeview, geographic). Secure but high maintenance. Cloud based services (AWS, advisory, care home data, market data). Risk of down-time, less control, but more scalable. Other options: Google cloud, Microsoft Azure.

Why do you gather and store data and why do you keep it secure?

Enrich datasets. Add value. Easy access. Analysis. Required by law (GDPR, Data Protection). Data is our asset

What measures do you take to ensure that you manage your own time effectively?

Clockify, Click-Up, deadlines, communication

When have you been able to support or collaborate with a colleague?

Collab

Why is it important that we use multiple data sets when analysing data, and what value does this add?

Gives context - analytics platform, reduce bias, competitive edge, completeness, uniqueness

Why is it important to use trusted sources of data, why should this be considered when blending data sets?

Quality control checked, reputable, authoritative body, machine readable, interoperable, not Wikipedia

What impact could improper or invalid data gathering have on the output of analysis?

Less accurate, misinformation, loss of trust

How could you use the internet of things as part of your role?

Printer, connected via the internet not a cable, sends and receives data (print jobs, alerts, updates), connects via cloud network, remote printing

How does the Internet of Things link to the digital domain?

The digital domain is where information exists in a digital format. Data is collected, stored and communicated using binary code. Uses the internet, www, email.

Why do we need to identify trends and faults in data?

Identify outliers, take corrective action, ensure data is represented accurately

Which methods have you used to validate your data and why?

Homeview, Validation checks - classification, Format checks - date/text/number/special characters, Range check - fees, Row counts, Cross checks

Why do you undertake cross-checking of data?

Check for errors, Ensure accuracy

What impact can noise and outliers have on the result?

Noise interferes with the insight, Blurs the full picture, Skews the restults, Anomalies to be identified, Corrective action

Why do you communicate data, what output does that achieve? Why is it so important to disseminate data?

Report results of data exploration, Provide insight and advice, Drive decisions for our clients

How do you ensure your communication is tailored to different stakeholders and audiences?

Understand the technical level of the audience, Understand any accessibility needs such as visual or hearing impairments, Understand any language barriers or cultural differences, Adapt communication accordingly

Why is it important to be culturally aware when communicating?

Without cultural awareness, phrases could be misunderstood. We want to ensure that the message is understood by all.

How does communication with your manager differ from that with your peer?

Can go into more technical depth with my manager. Can simplify and focus on the bigger picture with peers

How do you instil brand awareness in the way you work? Have you created any technical documentation?

Carterwood templates, colours, logos, design, Carterwood values, Collab guide, PNA tracker, Follow the format for saving docs

How do you ensure that your data is accessible to a range of audiences? What issues do end users experience?

Representative data (unbiased), Clear visuals with high contrast, Accessibility features, Testing, gain other perspectives

What security procedures do you follow within the workplace? How do you do this?

Passwords, VPN, MFA, Restricted/authorised access

How do you implement the principles of data ethics within your day-to-day role?

Using data only for its intended purposes, Agreed consent, Contributors understand the terms, (Collab)

Can you evaluate and justify the importance of maintaining ethical and security standards?

Maintaining ethical and security standards is important to: Respect the rights and privacy of individuals, Prevent data breaches, Maintain trust, Ensure legal compliance. Not doing so: Lose trust, Lose reputation, Lose business, Face fines

How do you prioritise your work tasks? What factors affect your decisions? (Consider the Data Lifecycle)

Consider what's most important to complete, Consider deadlines, direction of business, goals, Data lifecycle (collab data collection)

How have you worked both independently and flexibly within the data analysis lifecycle? Can you give an example of a time where you felt you showed initiative on a task or project you have worked on?

Planning dashboard project, Worked independently, Balanced with other priorities, Initiative to work on something meaningful for the business

What are you most proud of achieving throughout apprenticeship? a. Professional achievement.b. Personal achievement.This ia one of the last questions to be asked.

a. Professional achievement = building the planning dashboard in Power BI, b. Setting professional boundaries. Helped lower work stress.

Tell me about skills you think you’ve developed a. throughout the completion of your portfolio. b. since the completion of your portfolio. c. and any new responsibilities you've been given off the back of this.

a. Excel, SQL, Power BI, b. How to keep learning at work, c. Collab supported (helped by experience of Excel and SQL)