A credential is worth what its assessment made you do. By that rule the Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship comes first, because it is assessed on work with your own employer's data.
Power BI Certification in the UK: PL-300, Applied Skills and the Apprenticeship, Ranked by What You Must Do
By James Cotton · Last updated · Sources checked · 11 min read
Part of our topic guides on Data Analyst Careers and Data & AI Apprenticeships.
By James Cotton, Founder, iO-Sphere
If you are an analyst deciding whether to sit PL-300, or a manager deciding whether to pay for it, the question that sorts the options is what each credential made its holder do. A pass says someone cleared a bar; the assessment says how high it was and what it measured.
Each rung below is set out as its owner publishes it: Microsoft for the exam and labs, the sellers for the courses, Skills England for the apprenticeship standards. PL-300 is a vendor certificate, set and scored by Microsoft; the apprenticeship is assessed against a standard Skills England publishes.
PL-300, as Microsoft sets it out
One exam, PL-300, earns the Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification, which Microsoft rates "Intermediate". Its candidate should "deliver actionable insights by working with available data and applying domain expertise" and "should be proficient at using Power Query and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)".
The PL-300 study guide prints the skills measured as of 20 April 2026 in four areas: preparing the data (25 to 30%), modelling it (25 to 30%), visualising and analysing it (25 to 30%), and managing and securing Power BI (15 to 20%). Its change log marks three sub-areas as minor changes.
The sub-skills are specific, from "Choose between DirectLake, DirectQuery, and Import" and "Use the CALCULATE function" to "Implement row-level security roles". Four sub-skills name Copilot, among them "Use Copilot to create a new report page" and "Use Copilot to summarize the underlying semantic model".
You have 100 minutes for the exam, and Microsoft's exam duration page says to allow 120 in all, for the instructions and the candidate agreement. It gives no question count for PL-300, only that most of its exams typically contain 40 to 60 questions.
The exam is proctored and may include interactive components. You can open Microsoft Learn during an associate exam, but Microsoft adds no extra time for it, and a candidate who looks up every question will not finish in the time allowed. A pass is 700 or more on a scaled score of 1 to 1,000.
PL-300 costs £106 for an exam taken in the UK, as Microsoft displays it, with the price set by the country where it is proctored; the same page shows $165 for the United States. Under Microsoft's expiration policy, the certification is valid for one year from the date you earn it.
Renewal is a free, unproctored, open-book assessment on Microsoft Learn, shorter than the exam, taken in a six-month window before expiry. Passing adds a year from the expiry date, and failed renewal attempts can be retaken without limit until the certification lapses.
Microsoft lists no prerequisite for PL-300, though its Applied Skills FAQ of January 2024 says all role-based certification exams require experience. Before booking, a free practice assessment shows "the style, wording, and difficulty of the questions", and an exam sandbox shows the look and feel of the exam.
Two Fabric certifications sit beside PL-300: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (exam DP-600), which lists the Data Analyst role and expects SQL, KQL (Kusto Query Language) and DAX, and Fabric Data Engineer Associate (exam DP-700). Both exams last 100 minutes and cost the same £106 in the UK, and the DP-600 outline from 19 October 2026 names Power BI project files (.pbip).
Applied Skills: the lab rung has no Power BI credential today
Microsoft's Applied Skills credentials are assessed in an interactive lab, and they are put forward as the hands-on step between a course and the exam. For Power BI the step is missing: Microsoft's credentials browser filtered to Power BI returns two certifications and nothing else, and none of the 37 credentials in its Applied Skills catalogue is tagged Power BI.
One Fabric lab remains, Implement a Real-Time Intelligence solution with Microsoft Fabric: 2 hours to load streaming data with Eventstreams, explore it, and visualise and export it, for candidates "proficient in KQL". Microsoft's retirement table dates three other Fabric labs to 30 January and 30 June 2026, and Microsoft reserves the right to retire any credential at any time.
The preparation courses, as their sellers list them
Every course on this rung prepares you for PL-300, and the credential at the end is still Microsoft's exam. Microsoft Learn training is free to anyone, and the certification page links five learning paths of 1 hr 28 min to 5 hr 50 min each: about 20 hours across the five paths.
The first path introduces Microsoft Fabric and includes a 27-minute module, "Get started with Copilot in Power BI". Taken together, Microsoft's paths are one of the free data analyst courses a UK learner can start with.
Microsoft's official instructor-led course, PL-300T00, runs for 3 days and is delivered by training partners. For beginners, Microsoft lists DP-605T00, "Prepare and visualize data with Microsoft Power BI", at 24 hours in Microsoft's catalogue, with no prior Power BI experience required.
UK sellers package the course differently. QA runs it over 4 days, virtual or classroom, "From £3,165 + VAT", with the exam "Available separately". Learning Tree runs 3 days on Microsoft Official Courseware for £1,870 (no VAT basis shown), with the exam voucher included in the tuition.
Firebrand runs 3 days with PL-300 sat at its own centre under its Certification Guarantee, and asks you to check availability and price. Its listed domains differ from Microsoft's outline of 20 April 2026, putting preparing the data at 15 to 20% and modelling at 30 to 35%.
A Udemy practice-test course offers four tests of 40 questions and a set of 15, the seller's own test design. It says it follows the skills measured on 15 January 2026, an earlier outline than Microsoft's of 20 April 2026.
Two subscription sellers attach an exam discount. DataCamp's "Data Analyst in Power BI" track lists 17 courses and 50 hours, and its certification page shows "$25 per month", included in its Premium Membership. A premium DataCamp subscriber who completes the full track becomes eligible for a 50% PL-300 discount code by email.
Coursera's Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate, eight beginner courses scheduled at "5 months at 10 hours a week", says learners who complete it receive a 50% PL-300 voucher. The course hours Coursera lists add up to 188, ending in a capstone and a mock exam in PL-300's style. Microsoft's PL-300 page and study guide mention neither voucher.
The apprenticeship: assessed on your employer's data
An apprenticeship finishes with an end-point assessment, run by an independent assessor once the training is complete. The ST0118 record for the Level 4 data analyst standard names no specific tool: "dashboard" appears twice, Power BI not at all. Its duties include "Produce performance dashboards and reports" and presenting results "to a range of stakeholders, making recommendations".
Its skills include S14, converting data "into infographics, reports, tables, dashboards and graphs", and S15, to "select and apply the most appropriate data tools to achieve the optimum outcome". Choosing the tool is part of the standard, and the assessment plan grades it.
The ST0118 assessment plan builds its first method around a project on "a data analysis task tailored to the organisational requirements of the apprentice's employer", a task with a real business use, which the employer ensures. The project typically takes 6 weeks, plus 2 weeks to write up as an electronic report.
The report is capped at 3,500 words, plus or minus 10%, with appendices, references and diagrams outside the count. At a minimum it covers the scope and key performance indicators, a project plan, legislation and policy, analysis, findings and recommendations, with an appendix mapping the evidence to the standard's knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs).
Then come 40 minutes of presentation and questioning, typically 20 minutes of each, and the presentation must cover the project's outcomes and recommendations, "including visualisations". The pass criterion asks the apprentice to describe the tools their organisation uses and identify "which were used within the project with reasoning for the choices made to achieve the best outcome ...".
For a distinction, the apprentice "Evaluates the outcomes of data analysis and suggests alternative tools/methods which would be of benefit to all stakeholders ...". No criterion names a tool. The grade turns on whether you can explain why Power BI, or anything else, was the right choice for that task on that data.
The second method is a 60-minute professional discussion in which the independent assessor asks at least 10 open questions. Its pass criterion includes displaying "results using visual representations"; its distinction asks the apprentice to compare and contrast "visual data representation approaches and how they aid understanding by stakeholders".
The project is tied to an employer so closely that the ST0118 record carries a temporary dispensation: for agreed apprentices who have been made redundant, the training provider steps in as the employer for the assessment period. The record also says the apprenticeship "is in the process of being revised or adjusted".
The Level 3 data technician standard, ST0795, also names no vendor tool; its examples are "spreadsheets with tables and charts, dashboarding tools". Under the current plan, an independent assessor watches a 90-minute scenario with questioning, on tasks set by the end-point assessment organisation (EPAO), with a guidance document on the format and the data set sent up to a week ahead.
That data may come from a different business domain from the apprentice's own, so the Level 3 assessment has no project on the employer's data. The second method is a 60-minute professional discussion, in which the portfolio, which may include dashboards, is not directly assessed. The plan is being revised under the 2025/2026 reforms and stays live until the new one takes effect.
Skills England sets each standard's funding band, the most government funding will pay toward training and assessment; the programme pages are linked below.
Advanced Data & AI (Level 4) runs on the Data Analyst standard (ST0118), and its programme page says: "You'll use SQL to extract insights from raw data and Power BI or Tableau to visualise what matters most". Data & AI Essentials (Level 3) runs on the Data Technician standard (ST0795).
For someone still becoming a data analyst and not yet in a job with data in it, our Skills Bootcamps, for individuals who qualify, teach "SQL, Excel and Power BI through hands-on projects".
What UK job adverts ask for
IT Jobs Watch, a commercial tracker of UK job adverts, found Power BI cited in 1.96% of the permanent adverts it tracked in the six months to 19 October 2026, against 3.76% in the same period of 2025 and 3.03% in 2024.
Of the adverts citing Power BI, 53.0% also mention SQL, 25.5% Microsoft Excel, 24.6% Python and 16.9% Tableau. In the same six months, 0.65% of the permanent adverts the tracker follows cited "Microsoft Certification", its term for any Microsoft certification, of which PL-300 is one.
Coursera's certificate page displays "8,467 job openings in United Kingdom" for Business Intelligence Analyst, Business Data Analyst and Power BI Analyst, attributing the figure to Lightcast's Job Postings Report for 1 October 2025 to 1 October 2026.
Microsoft's own figures are global. A December 2025 post on its Power BI blog said Power BI was "used by over 375,000 organizations worldwide"; a July 2026 post thanked "our 35 million+ monthly active users, customers, partners, and community members".
Pearson VUE, which delivers Microsoft's exams, published its 2025 Value of IT Certification Candidate Report on 9 April 2025, from nearly 24,000 certified IT professionals worldwide; 82% said certification gave them confidence to pursue new jobs. The answers are self-reported by candidates, with no UK split, and do not show whether employers hire on certificates.
The rungs side by side
| Rung | What the assessment makes you do, and who marks it | Cost as displayed, and how long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship (ST0118) | A project on your employer's data, a report of up to 3,500 words (appendices outside the count), 40 minutes of presentation and questioning, and a 60-minute discussion; an independent assessor grades your reasoning about tools | Within Skills England's funding band for the standard; see the programme page; who pays depends on age and levy position |
| Level 3 Data Technician apprenticeship (ST0795) | A 90-minute observed scenario on data the EPAO supplies, and a 60-minute discussion, with an independent assessor | Within Skills England's funding band for the standard; see the programme page |
| PL-300 | A 100-minute proctored exam on Microsoft's outline, scored by Microsoft, pass at 700 of 1,000 | £106 for an exam taken in the UK; valid one year, renewed free |
| Applied Skills for Power BI | Microsoft's catalogue lists no such credential | Not applicable |
| Preparation courses and paths | Practice against Microsoft's outline, from instructor-led days to a capstone and mock exam | Microsoft Learn free; QA from £3,165 + VAT; Learning Tree £1,870 (no VAT basis shown); DataCamp $25 per month |
Which rung fits where you are
If you work in a job with data in it, aim for the top rung, a data analyst apprenticeship: ST0118's project needs exactly what you have, a real task from your employer on its data. Apply first for Advanced Data & AI (Level 4), and our admissions team prepares the conversation with your employer.
If you need a dated, external check this quarter, sit PL-300. Work through Microsoft's five free paths, take the free practice assessment, and book once your practice scores hold up. A paid course is worth its fee if you want an instructor's days, or a voucher packaged with the training.
If you are a manager choosing for a team, decide what you need to see. PL-300 shows that someone cleared Microsoft's timed outline within the last year. The apprenticeship assessment shows that someone ran a real analysis on your data, chose the tools and defended the choice to an independent assessor.
For an analyst whose work you will rely on, we would choose the apprenticeship assessment, and it asks something of you: a data analysis task from your organisation's own work, with a real business use, and time for a project that typically takes 6 weeks, plus 2 weeks to write up.
Frequently asked questions
How soon can you retake PL-300 after failing?
Twenty-four hours after a first failed attempt, under Microsoft's retake policy; every later attempt waits 14 days. You may sit the same exam at most five times in the 12 months from your first attempt, you pay again for each retake where a fee applies, and you cannot resit an exam you have passed until the certification expires.
Can you sit PL-300 in a language other than English?
Ten languages are offered: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional) and Italian. Microsoft's study guide says localised versions are updated about eight weeks after the English one, which matters after an outline change such as 20 April 2026. If your preferred language is not offered, you can request an extra 30 minutes.
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