Three decisions a data strategy course has to prepare a manager for, ten questions to hold against any syllabus, and what the courses cost.
Data Strategy Training for Managers: What a Course Should Cover
By James Cotton · Last updated · 6 min read
Part of our topic guides on AI Governance & Data Strategy and AI Skills for Business.
By James Cotton, Founder, iO-Sphere
What data strategy means when it lands on your desk
The Open Data Institute wrote in 2021 that "data strategy should direct how an organisation develops and resources its internal and external data infrastructure and data culture in support of its business strategy." A data strategy serves a business plan, so it starts with someone who knows the business.
Read as a manager, that definition turns into three questions. What data does the organisation need to reach its goals? Who is responsible for each part of it? What is it used to decide? Systems, dashboards and AI projects all follow from the answers, and none of the three needs a line of code.
In the UK Business Data Survey 2026, among businesses that handled digitised data, 69% of large businesses said they analyse it for new insights. Of those with 10 or more employees, 12% said acquiring, collecting or analysing data made their internal processes more efficient always or most of the time. Among large ones, 29% said so.
The same ODI post argued that people get left out. "Culture, people and organisational change are rarely featured", it said of the data strategies organisations write. Those are the parts a head of function owns, and the parts a course built around tools is most likely to pass over.
Ten questions to hold against any syllabus
The government's Data Maturity Assessment is a self-assessment framework "organised around 10 topics, intersected with six themes", each scored across five maturity levels. It was "created specifically for use in the public sector", and dates from March 2023; the page was updated on 23 July 2026 to say a new version is being developed.
Built for government or not, its ten topics make a sound checklist for any organisation. Here they are in the framework's order, each turned into a question you can put to a course provider:
- Engaging with others. Will I learn to agree data needs with the teams, suppliers and partners who produce or use our data?
- Having the right data skills and knowledge. Does it show me how to judge which data skills my team has and which it lacks?
- Having the right systems. Will I be able to question a systems proposal without being an engineer?
- Knowing the data you have. Is there a method for finding out what data we hold, and where?
- Making decisions with data. Do the exercises use real decisions, or only charts?
- Managing and using data ethically. Does it deal with fairness, bias and the cases where data should not be used?
- Managing your data. Are quality, retention and ownership explained in terms a manager can act on?
- Protecting your data. Will I understand my own security and data protection duties?
- Setting your data direction. Does it end with principles, a policy or a strategy I could take to my board?
- Taking responsibility for data. Does it show how to name who answers for each dataset, and how to make that stick?
If your harder problem is reading and questioning numbers day to day, that is data literacy for managers, a related but separate skill. For strategy, notice where the framework puts it: under "Setting your data direction", listing "Data principles. Data policy. Data strategy." beneath it. A course that teaches only that topic leaves you with a document and no way to carry it out.
Data strategy and AI strategy courses, side by side
The tables below put courses titled data strategy beside analytics and AI strategy programmes, because for a manager these have merged. In January 2026 the then government's progress report, AI Opportunities Action Plan: One Year On, said: "Data determines what problems AI can solve, which firms can compete, and how quickly new tools reach citizens and public services."
An AI strategy course with no data content leaves you choosing tools for problems your data cannot support. A data strategy course with no AI content plans for yesterday's uses. Prices are as each provider displayed them on 1 October 2026.
Self-paced courses
| Provider and course | Length | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 365 Data Science: Data Strategy, data strategy course with Bernard Marr | 6 hours, 81 lessons | About £22 a month on an annual plan (£27.28 paid monthly) |
| Open Data Institute: Strategic Data Skills | About 15 hours, 6 months' access | £600 + VAT (members £510 + VAT) |
Programmes that run over weeks or months
| Provider and programme | Length | Price |
|---|---|---|
| iO-Sphere: AI Strategy for Leaders, live AI strategy course | 5 weeks, one 2-hour session a week | £1,195 + VAT |
| Cambridge Judge: Business Analytics and AI, analytics programme | 8 weeks, 4 to 6 hours a week | £2,250 |
| LSE with GetSmarter: Business Analytics Executive Programme, analytics programme | 4 months, 5 to 10 hours a week | £2,690 |
| Imperial College Business School: Chief Data and AI Officer Programme | 7 months | £9,000 |
| UC Berkeley Executive Education: Data Strategy for AI, data strategy programme | 2 months, 4 to 6 hours a week | US$2,655 (list US$2,950) |
The sterling fees in the second table rise from top to bottom. Berkeley charges in US dollars and sits last without being ranked against them.
Which kind suits whom comes down to what you have to produce, and by when. A self-paced course suits a manager who wants the vocabulary and a framework before committing to more. A five-week live course suits a leader who needs a plan to take back to the business: ours ends with a 12-month AI roadmap.
A leadership team that has to agree one direction together is better served by a custom programme, priced for each engagement.
The university programmes ask for more time: eight weeks to seven months of study, at four to ten hours a week. Their own pages say who they are written for. Imperial asks for at least eight years of work experience; Cambridge writes for "business managers across different functions who drive, or intend to drive, analytics projects".
Choosing among executive AI programmes more broadly, and knowing afterwards whether one worked, follow the same logic. Whichever you shortlist, run it through the ten questions before you compare fees.
If you were hoping the levy would pay
Two 2026 changes narrowed the funded routes managers used to take. From 1 January 2026, Level 7 apprenticeships, such as Senior leader, are government funded only for apprentices aged 16 to 21 at the start, or under 25 with an Education, Health and Care plan or experience of local authority care (the Level 7 rule in detail).
And according to the Department for Education's growth and skills levy page, new starts on Chartered Manager (degree) Level 6, Operations Manager Level 5 and Team Leader Level 3 are not government funded from September 2026, though apprentices already on them are funded to completion.
For the person who will own data strategy, the levy still reaches our Data & AI Strategy apprenticeship (Level 4). Its modules include Driving Value Through Data Strategy, alongside data governance and data quality, AI ethics and AI strategy. How the levy pays for this route has its own guide.
We built it on the Level 4 Data Protection and Information Governance Practitioner standard by design, and that standard carries maximum funding of £10,000. Deciding what data an organisation holds, who answers for it and how it may be used is where strategy starts.
Frequently asked questions
Is a data strategy course worth it for a non-technical manager?
Yes, when the course is written for managers rather than analysts. 365 Data Science rates its Data Strategy course "Basic", and the questions that matter most (who owns which data, what it is used to decide) need judgement about the business more than technical skill. Be wary of hours spent on tools you will never operate.
What is the difference between data strategy and data governance?
Strategy decides which data the organisation needs and what it is for; governance makes sure that data is held, protected and used as it should be. They meet at one question, who answers for each dataset, which is why learning governance well is already strategic work.
Want to turn governed data into strategy?
Our Level 4 Data & AI Strategy programme turns data management and governance into board-level decisions, funded through the Growth & Skills Levy.