Data and AI Performance Leader
Lead with authority. Decide with evidence. Qualify with both.
This programme combines world-class leadership development with practical data and AI capability, giving your operational managers the confidence and technical insight to lead performance and drive results.
They learn by doing. Leadership workshops and data skills are applied to your operation across four programme themes, using your real projects, your data and your delivery challenges.
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Key facts
- Qualification Data Analyst Level 4 Apprenticeship, plus Chartered Manager status (CMgr)
- Start dates Jan · Mar · May · Jul · Sep · Nov
- Duration 17 months, plus a 3-month End Point Assessment
- Structure 7 Leadership Workshops, 9 Data Training Sessions (with Applied AI), 1:1 coaching and quarterly progress reviews
- Outcomes 7 real operational performance outcomes, a portfolio of measured ROI, a nationally recognised Pass, Merit or Distinction
- Funding Growth and Skills Levy funded, £15,000 funding band
Rocket fuel for your leaders
This programme certifies that your leaders are trained, qualified and capable of using data and AI effectively.
They apply it to maximise opportunities, drive efficiencies and add measurable value to their teams, your operation and your clients.
It is not a separate course. It is a structured, analytical strand woven through every theme of the programme. What you get back are leaders who make decisions grounded in data that is credible, factual, compliant, secure, meaningful and outcome-focused.
Each participant gains a nationally recognised, accredited qualification, exceptional operational leadership skills and practical data and AI capability, with set progression pathways to keep developing the leaders you need.
WHO IT’S FOR
The leaders accountable
for performance.
This programme is for the people who run your operation and answer for its results. It suits the managers you need to lead with greater clarity and use your data to its full potential, while gaining a recognised professional qualification. As a Level 4 data apprenticeship and leadership development programme in one, it builds the analytical and leadership capability your operation needs.
Operations Managers
Heads of Department
Managers
Aspiring Managers
WHY DATA?
Data capability enhances
leadership performance
Data doesn’t replace judgement. It sharpens it. This is data and AI training for managers, built around your operation, so they make data-driven decisions with confidence: they lead faster, fairer and with more authority. Here’s what changes:
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See problems coming
Managers who can read their data don’t wait for problems to surface through people. They see them coming: a dip in attendance, a quality score trending down, a project milestone slipping. Data gives them the early signal.
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Make the case land
When a manager’s case is built on evidence, people don’t just listen. They act. Evidence-based decisions land faster, travel further up the organisation and bring more people with them.
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Show the working
When your managers walk into a room with a commercial case, a change proposal or a performance review backed by clean, traceable, analytically rigorous evidence, they carry more authority. Stakeholders trust leaders who can show their working.
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Use facts, not feelings
Performance conversations grounded in evidence remove the subjectivity that damages trust. When a manager can show someone their attendance pattern, output trend or development progress, the conversation changes. Facts, not feelings.
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Know the numbers
The leaders who get promoted can connect their team and operation performance to the numbers that matter. Revenue, cost, margin, efficiency. At Level 4, data becomes the language of commercial authority, not just operational reporting.
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Better conversations
Leaders who use data well have better conversations, make fairer decisions, develop their people more deliberately and lead change with more honesty. Data doesn’t replace judgement. It sharpens it.
APPLIED AI
AI capability runs right
through the programme.
Leading with data now means getting the best from AI too. Your managers learn the same principle as leading people: treat AI like a capable analyst on the team. They direct it: set the question, give the context and challenge the output. It works on the data your organisation already owns: your dashboards, P&L, forecasts and reports.
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Think beyond the report
AI handles the routine analysis and reporting, so your managers can focus on what moves the operation: where the margin sits, what to back and what to fix first.
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Define success up front
AI delivers what it is briefed to. Managers who set the question, audience and outcome at briefing stage get decision-ready insight with far less room for error or reworking.
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Validate before it counts
At Level 4, a flawed figure can misdirect real investment. Your managers learn to treat every output as a first draft: check the sources and test the assumptions before it reaches a stakeholder.
TWO SKILL SETS. ONE LEADER.
By the end of the programme,
your managers will be able to:
- Lead operations with authority
- Manage performance with evidence
- Build and develop high-performing teams
- Plan operational activities with structure
- Deliver measurable outcomes
- Lead change and projects with confidence
- Manage complex stakeholder relationships
- Spot data trends and predict problems
- Apply statistical analysis to performance
- Build performance dashboards and reports
- Combine data from multiple sources
- Present data-driven insight to senior leaders
- Lead with data legally and ethically
- Use data to build organisational trust
THE RETURN
Real Impact. Measured ROI.
Fuel Learning’s programmes have already delivered £60m+ in verified ROI. This one is built to do the same for you: we’ll make every penny of your Growth and Skills Levy count, and deliver a return you can measure in pounds.
Every assessment is built around your live business: your data, your teams and your priorities. Each cycle baselines the starting point, tests decisions against what actually happened and turns the result into portfolio evidence. Participants log that impact in our bespoke online ROI tracker, and we review the return with you as it builds. The impact isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening now, and it shows up on your bottom line. Real work. Real results. Real return. From day one.
| For you, the buyer | For the line manager | For the team | For the department | For the participant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximised levy tied to real operational projects, with ROI evidenced in time, cost and quality in a portfolio you can review. | Capable leaders who manage performance with evidence, plan with structure and present data-driven insight upward. | Fairer performance conversations grounded in evidence, not subjectivity. Facts, not feelings. | Problems spotted early through dashboards and trend analysis, and decisions grounded in data that is credible, compliant and secure. | Develops advanced leadership skills with data and AI capability, whilst earning a professional qualification and CMI-backed recognition. |
THE PROGRAMME CYCLE
Predict. Prove. Improve.
That’s how leaders drive results.
Predict, Prove, Improve is the signature cycle of the programme, run as ‘Try It and Apply It’ guided application.
Each phase builds capability through applied practice, not theory.
The cycle is built on the leader’s own operation: real operational projects, real data and genuine delivery challenges. Each cycle explores a real operational question, so learning is applied immediately and capability lasts.
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Predict
Read the patterns in the operation’s own data and forecast where performance is heading.
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Prove
Test the call against what actually happens, and evidence the impact in time, cost and quality.
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Improve
Act on what the evidence shows, embed the change in how the work runs, and rebaseline.
The cycle repeats throughout the programme, building an ROI portfolio of seven performance improvement outcomes as it goes.
The capability builds with each cycle. By the end, each leader has a portfolio of evidence built from real work, ready for the End Point Assessment.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
Seven powerful workshops.
The programme is structured around four themes – Leadership that Sets Direction, Teams that Solve Problems, Decisions that Improve Performance and Results that Last. Each theme is a complete learning experience, including Leadership Workshops, Data Training Sessions (with Applied AI), 1:1 coaching and progress reviews. Every task is grounded in real projects, real stakeholders and genuine delivery challenges.
What it costs. What it takes.
My programme helped me improve my delegation skills and cross-functional communication, which is now saving 20% of my time – that’s a full day of work every week!
Jennifer Diniz, Assistant Portfolio Data Manager for UKIE & Fuel Graduate · Nomad Foods
HOW WE DELIVER
Delivery that fits.
Flex, Focus, Fusion. We offer the choice of three delivery models – so we can build the perfect programme to suit your precise needs, cohort size and preferred learning environment. Three delivery models, one decision: how do you need it delivered?
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Join an open programme
Maximum flexibility: any cohort size, ready-made intake dates, and participants learning alongside people from other industry sectors.
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Built for you
A closed cohort, tailored to your organisation: your language, your systems, your challenges as the working material.
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The best of both
Flex and Focus combined: open, flexible workshops sitting alongside closed workshops targeted at your organisation.
GETTING STARTED
From meeting to launch
in three simple steps.
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A scoping meeting
Thirty minutes with our team. We map the roles and teams that fit, size the cohort, confirm your levy position and agree what success looks like: the numbers you’ll want to report upward.
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We build the cohort
We handle it all. Eligibility, funding, paperwork, onboarding and manager briefings – the only admin required from you is signing off.
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They launch
We have new cohorts starting every two months: January, March, May, July, September and November. Receive your first measured results at your month-four review.
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Leadership Workshops
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Data Training Sessions with Applied AI
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ROI Outcomes
0 +
Access to over 30 additional Elective modules
Programme structure in detail
Learn it in a workshop. Practise it in a Data Bytes session. Apply it to your own team. Embed it with a coach.
THE CADENCE
The programme starts with a Skill Scan diagnostic and runs in four phases over 17 months. Leadership workshops, delivered by Leadership Facilitators, set the direction for each phase. Data Bytes sessions, delivered by Data Trainers, build the data skills that go with them. One-to-one coaching with a Data Coach turns both into a live Predict, Prove, Improve cycle in the participant’s own role.
The four phases and cycles
The Predict, Prove, Improve cycle runs across the 17 months, so every workshop and Data Bytes session feeds a live improvement.
The Seven leadership workshops · face-to-face or virtual
- Lead Better – The Data-enabled Leader (1 day) – leadership style, impact and brand; the traps and default behaviours that create bottlenecks; the shift from operating to leading; and setting clear accountabilities for yourself and your team.
- Communicate to Influence (1 day face-to-face / half a day virtual) – the team as a connected system; and leading and influencing in remote, digital and AI-enabled workplaces.
- Build a Performing Team (1 day) – IQ and EQ in team performance; the five dysfunctions; team diagnostics with evidence; spotting and developing talent; building inclusive teams; recruitment and onboarding; and coaching and performance conversations grounded in data.
- Know Your Operations (1 day) – using trusted data to support decisions; end-to-end operational mapping; stock, supply, delivery and cost control; health and safety as leadership; supplier accountability; root cause analysis and continuous improvement; and mapping the data landscape, data governance, GDPR and confidentiality, integrity in practice.
- Know Your Commercials (1 day) – reading the P&L for margin, mix and cost; the difference between finance and commercial; what drives commercial value; basic EBITDA; influencing sales from every role; and building investment cases that get funded first time.
- Present Data Insights (half a day) – creating and presenting insights for internal and external stakeholders; deciding who needs what data; using Predict, Prove, Improve in business cases and pitches; and handling tough questions.
- Deliver Sustainable ROI (1 day) – verified improvements evidenced in pounds; bringing the people, operational and commercial results together; portfolio audit and gap analysis; and EPA preparation.
The nine Data Training Sessions (with Applied AI)
- Lead Smarter (2 hours) – the life of a task, what to measure, and when to trust the numbers.
- Get Your Data in Shape (3.5 hours) – where data lives, dashboards, ways to read data, data cleaning and GDPR.
- Read Patterns (3.5 hours) – averages and spread, data distributions, trends over time and a first forecast.
- Know Your People Data (2 hours) – your people data, structured and unstructured data, joining sources and reading the trends.
- The Data That Runs Your Operations (3.5 hours) – operational metrics, data accuracy, and using predictive data to plan ahead.
- Join the Dots (3.5 hours) – data structures, joins, merges and appending data, and writing the brief.
- Know Your Commercial Numbers (3.5 hours) – market and customers, sales and P&L forecasting, and scenario modelling.
- Telling a Story With Data (3.5 hours) – requirements first, choosing the right chart, design and access, and dashboards.
- Predict, Prove, Improve: The Data Impact (2 hours) – choosing your project, building your evidence, your ROI story and preparing for the EPA
THE Seven COACHING SESSIONS
One-to-one with a Data Coach throughout the programme. Session one is a pre-flight checklist: goals, baseline and the Skill Scan results. Sessions two to six support the four cycles and the Data Bytes sessions: choosing the improvement, setting the baseline, applying the skills live, and logging the measured result in the ROI tracker. Session seven is dedicated to EPA preparation. Coaching is where the four Predict, Prove, Improve cycles actually happen, and where the portfolio of evidence for the EPA is built.
THE DIGITAL LIBRARY AND THE SHOWCASE
A suite of online training content, created and curated by Fuel Learning, available 24/7, so every skill from every workshop is on tap at the moment it’s needed. Scheduling runs through the FuelHub or a dedicated Fuel Learner Manager, and the Showcase closes the programme: measured ROI presented to stakeholders.
The End Point Assessment
Every apprenticeship finishes with an independent End Point Assessment (EPA). On this programme it isn’t a separate hurdle at the end. It’s the Deliver Growth cycle with an external audience. By the time the EPA arrives, participants have already led, measured and evidenced four real improvements, and chosen the project they will be assessed on.
Completed over a typical three-month window after gateway, available online, and assessed by an independent assessor, the EPA has two assessment methods:
- Project with presentation and questioning. A work-based data analysis project with a real business application, completed within eight weeks of the EPA start and written up as a report of up to 3,500 words. It is followed by a 40-minute session with the assessor: a 20-minute presentation of the project, its findings and recommendations, then 20 minutes of questions.
- Professional discussion with portfolio. A 60-minute one-to-one discussion with the independent assessor, underpinned by a portfolio of typically ten pieces of evidence built during the programme. It’s a structured conversation about what they’ve done, how they did it and what it delivered.
Each method is graded Fail, Pass or Distinction, and together they earn a nationally recognised overall grade of Pass, Merit or Distinction: a Level 4 qualification backed by real, measured workplace results.
Where next? Progression routes
Participants finish with a Level 4 qualification, a portfolio of measured improvements across people, operations and commercials, and the confidence to lead with data. For you, that means a leadership pipeline you can keep developing and benefiting from.
Deliver value-adding services across the organisation:
• Service Focused Leader (Level 6)
Or lead improvement at a bigger scale:
• Leading Operational Excellence (Level 5)
And whichever route they take, Fuel alumni carry their ROI tracker record with them: documented, measured proof of the value they deliver.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost us?
If you pay the Growth & Skills Levy, the programme is fully covered by it, up to the £15,000 funding band, with no course fees on top. Non-levy employers access the same programme with government covering 75% of the cost. One call and we’ll confirm your exact position.
CAN WE USE OUR GROWTH AND SKILLS LEVY FOR AI TRAINING?
Yes. The Data and AI Performance Leader programme is a Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship, so the training your managers receive is funded through your Growth and Skills Levy as part of it. That covers the Data and AI Training Sessions (with Applied AI), the Leadership Workshops and 1:1 coaching, with data and AI built into every theme rather than added as a separate course.
Is the Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship suitable for managers?
Yes. This programme pairs the Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship with seven Leadership Workshops and Chartered Manager status (CMgr), so it is built for managers who lead people and performance, not for full-time analysts. Participants apply statistics, dashboards, people analytics and data visualisation to their own operation, and lead with the results.
How much time does it take out of the working week?
Around 6 hours of learning and application, which include planned workshop or coaching sessions, and applied workplace outputs built on the participant’s own work.
What about our data in AI tools?
Safe, compliant use is trained from day one. Participants learn data governance, GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and how to work within your organisation’s data and AI policies: what can and can’t go into which tool, and how to check what comes back. If your organisation restricts certain tools, the programme adapts to the ones you’ve approved.
We use Microsoft Copilot / we don’t allow ChatGPT. Does the programme still work?
Yes. The skills of using AI to analyse data, checking its outputs, building evidence and presenting insight transfer across every tool. We train on what your people can actually use at their desks.
What does the line manager have to do?
A short briefing at the start, sight of the ROI tracker as results land, and the final decision that their apprentice is ready for assessment. We handle the rest, including all scheduling if they prefer.
What if we invest in them and they leave?
Development is one of the biggest drivers of retention, and people who are invested in stay. As work-based improvements, they remain yours even if they choose to leave.
Who is eligible?
Anyone employed in England, aged 16 or over, in a role that fits the standard. Prior qualifications rarely block enrolment. We check all of this for you before anyone commits.
How many people do we need to enrol?
Cohorts work at any size, from a handful of managers in one area to a rolling intake across the organisation. Larger cohorts increase the return: leaders learn from each other, improvements spread across sites and teams, and the ROI tracker rolls everything into one report you can put in front of the board.
When can they start?
We have new cohorts starting every two months: January, March, May, July, September and November.
Not quite the right fit?
We have a range of programmes suitable for all levels of your organisation. If our Data and AI Performance Leader programme isn’t quite right for you, you may be interested in one of our programmes below.
Take the next step
Request a callback and a member of the Fuel team will talk you through our Data and AI Performance Leader programme, answer any questions you have, and show you how it will build AI-enabled, data-driven leadership across your organisation.
Ready to see what your leaders
can really deliver?
ANALYSE WITH AI • LEAD WITH INSIGHT • PROVE THE RETURN