Computing, Digital and IT

Digital Business Services (Data analysis) Level 3 T Level

In Brief

Start Date / Duration

This course starts in September 2024 and lasts for two years.

Entry requirements

  • Five GCSEs at grade 4 or above including English and Maths
  • You may also require a DBS

You will achieve

Level 3 Digital Business Services T Level.

Course overview

During this two-year programme, you will learn the core knowledge that underpins the digital business industry and develop specific skills that will allow you to enter employment in data technician roles.

The course is split into two years. The first year covers the core content and in the second year you will focus on specialised data analysis studies.

T Level courses have been developed in collaboration with employers and businesses so the content meets the needs of industry and prepares you for work. They provide the knowledge and experience needed to open the door to highly skilled employment, an apprenticeship or higher-level study, including university.

T Levels are courses for 16-to 18-year-olds that are studied at the same level as A Levels. They are for young people who prefer a more technical education when they come to College, rather than following a purely academic pathway, or a work-based apprenticeship.

T Levels combine classroom theory, practical learning and a minimum of 45 days industry placement with an employer to make sure you have real experience of the workplace.

Course content

The objectives of this qualification are to equip students with:

  • The core knowledge and skills relevant to digital business services.
  • Up-to-date occupational knowledge and skills that have continued currency amongst employers and others.
  • The necessary English, Maths and Digital skills.
  • Threshold competence that meets employer expectations and is as close to full occupational competence as possible.
  • Opportunities to manage and improve your own performance using the below outcomes:
  • Performance outcome 1: Sourcing, organising and formatting data securely in a relevant way for analysis.
  • Performance outcome 2: Blending data from multiple sources.
  • Performance outcome 3: Analysing structured and unstructured data to support business outcomes.
  • Performance outcome 4: Interpreting data and communicating a result appropriate to the audience.
  • Performance outcome 5: Applying legal, ethical and professional principles when manipulating data.
  • Performance outcome 6: Discovering, evaluating, and applying reliable sources of knowledge.

Paper 1 is an externally set and marked exam and will cover:

  • Business context including business environment, digital value to business, technical change management and risks in a business context.
  • Culture including moral and ethical issues.
  • Data including data and information in organisations, data formats, data systems and data management.
  • Digital analysis including computational thinking and use of algorithms.
  • Digital Environments including physical environments, networks, virtual environments, cloud environments and resilience of environments.
  • Diversity and inclusion including digital inclusion and impact of non-inclusive digital practices.
  • Learning including emerging trends and technologies.
  • Legislation including relevant legislation, guidelines and code of conduct.
  • Planning including project planning, life cycle management and quality management.
  • Security including security risks and threat mitigation.
  • Testing including root cause analysis and testing methods.
  • Tools including presentation tools, project management methodologies, evaluation tools and collaborative communication tools.

Paper 2 is an externally set and marked exam and will cover:

  • Careers within the digital support services sector.
  • Communication in digital support services including communication formats, interactions taking place between digital support services and client/colleagues.
  • Fault analysis and problem resolution including fault analysis tools, frameworks for problem management, root cause analysis incident management.

In year one, you will take two paper-based exams and undertake an employer set project.
In year two, you will complete you will complete an occupational specialist project set by industry partners.
In addition to the above, you must complete an industry placement, lasting a minimum of 315 hours.

Please bring a folder, paper, pens and pencil. While a personal laptops is not required, it is beneficial.

SciTech Digital Innovation Centre
Falcon Street
Barnsley
S70 2EY

You can go on to study a relevant university course or apprenticeship or go into employment in a digital support role. Due to the wide variety of skills you will acquire on the course, you could study or work in networking, software development, games design, computer science, big data analytics, cyber security, social media or business.

See what careers are available in the Computing and Games sectors. Use our online careers tool, Career Coach, to find out what your next steps could be.

How much does the course cost?

Full-time students aged 16-18 do not have to pay tuition fees.

16 – 18 year olds

Full-time Barnsley College students aged 16-18 years old do not have to pay tuition fees.

Extra information

For further information please contact our friendly Information Team on +44 (0)1226 216 123 or email info@barnsley.ac.uk

Barnsley College has a range of sports opportunities for all students to take part in, gain professional training and compete nationally and internationally. We also have a state-of-the-art fitness village, Honeywell Sports Village where students can make use of our fitness suite, spinning studio and classes for competitive rates. You don’t have to be studying sport to get involved in the Sports Academy.

Our Additional Learning Support team can provide you with the support you need. Please contact them on +44 (0)1226 216 769.

Having good English and Maths qualifications are important for most careers and we want to give you the help you need to succeed.

If you are aged 16 – 19 and don’t already have a grade C/4 or above in GCSE English and Maths they will automatically be included in your study programme. If you want to work towards higher grades in English and Maths we can help you do that too.

Need a higher level Maths qualification? We offer a Level 3 Mathematical Studies (Core Maths).

This can be added to your study programme.

If you need any further information, please contact our friendly Information Team.

Please note we reserve the right to change details without notice. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Digital Business Services (Data analysis) Level 3 T Level

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