Learn the craft behind
AI-ready data
A free, open knowledge base for the people who build and govern modern data platforms. Nine learning tracks — from data governance to the platform, layer by layer — each covering what it is, how to do it, industry best practice, hands-on labs, career paths and a skill matrix. Written for developers, business analysts and the leaders who guide them.
Where do you want to begin?
Great platforms need fluent people
Tools change every quarter; the fundamentals compound for a career. The Data Academy teaches the durable concepts and the current practice side by side, so your team can reason from first principles and ship with today's stack.
Concept-first
Every track starts from what it is and why it matters — the mental model before the tool.
Learning-outcome driven
Each page opens with what you'll be able to do by the end — not just what you'll read.
Hands-on for both sides
Parallel labs for developers and business analysts — real exercises, real tools.
Career & skills mapped
A ladder from entry to leadership plus a beginner-to-advanced skill matrix for every track.
Nine tracks, one learning path
Follow them in order for a full grounding in the modern data-to-AI stack, or jump straight to the one you need. Each is a self-contained wiki you can bookmark and return to.
Data Governance
Policies, metadata, catalogues, lineage, quality, stewardship and compliance — the foundation that makes data trustworthy and AI safe.
Start the trackSemantic Modelling
The semantic layer, metrics, ontologies and knowledge graphs — one shared meaning of your data for consistent BI and grounded AI.
Start the trackData Modelling
Conceptual to physical, normalisation, dimensional design, Data Vault and the medallion architecture — structure data for meaning and speed.
Start the trackData Integration
ETL vs ELT, batch and streaming, CDC, orchestration and the lakehouse — move and unify data reliably from every source.
Start the trackAgentic AI
AI agents that reason, plan and act — tools, memory, RAG, MCP and multi-agent orchestration, grounded on governed enterprise data.
Start the trackData Security, Privacy & Compliance
Classification, personal-data discovery, entitlement, masking, residency, retention and purpose limitation — mapped to what GDPR, DPDP, HIPAA, PCI DSS and BCBS 239 actually require of data.
Start the trackAI Governance
Use-case register, risk tiering, data provenance, evaluation, human oversight, monitoring and rollback — the controls that get an AI system out of the pilot and keep it there.
Start the trackThe platform, layer by layer
How an enterprise intelligence platform works, from sources and ontology to governed agents that act and learn: one lesson per layer.
Start the trackGoverned AI by industry
Ten industry tutorials: three governed agent use cases each, the ontology and systems behind them, guardrails, rollout and what to measure.
Start the trackSCIKIQ Certified Data and AI Engineer
21 programs: 17 industry and domain specialisations and 4 technology-stack programs. Each turns the tracks into a structured program with hands-on labs, timed assessments and end-to-end capstones, on the same value chains and systems the Academy teaches.
Beyond the tracks
Standalone modules on the business side of the same problem — the models your governed data is ultimately built to serve. Take them in any order; they assume no data background.
Enterprise Value Tree
How value decomposes into profit and cash efficiency, revenue into price and quantity, and where STP, 3C and 4P attach — then how to instrument every node as a governed metric.
Start the moduleMetric Dictionary
Formula, worked example, source system and common mistakes for 58 business metrics — finance, pricing, supply chain, customer, workforce and data.
Open the dictionaryCash Release Calculator
Six inputs, and you see how much cash is trapped in your cash conversion cycle and what a single day of DSO is worth. Runs in the browser.
Run the calculatorData & AI Readiness
Twelve questions across connect, define, govern and activate. Instant score, a band, and the specific next step for where you actually are.
Score yourselfEvaluating a platform
The buyer’s guide: which category of platform your problem needs, 30 questions worth asking, a scoring sheet, the proof to demand and the red flags.
Read the guideGlossary
Every term used across the Academy in one A–Z — business metrics, modelling, governance and AI — with links to the full definitions.
Browse the glossarySystem Dictionary
24 enterprise systems — ERP, CRM, MES, WMS, TMS, core banking, EMR and more: what each holds, the records inside it, how the data comes out and which joins silently return nothing.
Open the dictionaryEntity Dictionary
The 10 records every enterprise holds more than once — customer, supplier, item, asset, patient — with the match keys that work, the survivorship rules, and the metrics each one breaks.
Open the dictionaryThe value tree, sector by sector
Same structure, different drivers — and different systems holding them. 11 sectors, each naming the six systems that matter in it, the records the tree depends on, and where value leaks between two of them.
Manufacturing
Value in manufacturing is decided twice: once when the price is agreed, and again on the line, where yield, downtime…
Open the tree 02Banking & financial services
In banking the tree runs on spread and risk rather than units. Revenue is what you earn on balances and fees; cost is…
Open the tree 03Retail
Retail value turns on availability and mix. The shelf either has the product when the shopper is there, or the sale…
Open the tree 04Telecom
Telecom economics are a base of subscribers, a spread per subscriber and a very large fixed asset. Small movements in…
Open the tree 05Insurance
Insurance value is underwriting result plus investment return. The tree separates the two, then splits underwriting…
Open the tree 06Healthcare
In healthcare the tree balances outcome against cost per episode. Value is what the patient gained, per unit of…
Open the tree 07Airlines
Airline value is yield times load factor against a largely fixed cost of flying. The seat expires at departure, which…
Open the tree 08Logistics & freight forwarding
Freight is bought and sold as capacity on a lane. Margin is made per shipment, in a spread that is small, and lost in…
Open the tree 09Facilities management
Facilities management sells contracted service across an estate you do not own. Value is decided per work order and…
Open the tree 10Hospitality & catering
Hospitality margin is decided per dish, per cover, per outlet, every day — and reported per month, by which…
Open the tree 11Travel technology
Travel technology sells accuracy at volume. Revenue is a small fee on an enormous number of transactions, and the…
Open the treeChecklists for the people who own the numbers
7 checklists. Five numbers you should be able to defend, six questions to ask your own team, a 90-day plan that finishes something, and the systems each figure comes from.
The CFO's data checklist
Every figure you sign off comes from a system you do not own, through a transformation you did not write. This is…
Open the module COOThe COO's data checklist
Operations generates more data than any other function and trusts less of it. The reason is usually that the numbers…
Open the module CMOThe CMO's data checklist
Marketing is measured on the part of the funnel it can see, which is rarely the part that decides revenue. Joining…
Open the module Supply chainThe supply chain leader's data checklist
Supply chain is judged on three things that pull against each other: service, cost and cash. Any number that shows…
Open the module CHROThe CHRO's data checklist
Workforce data usually answers what happened to headcount. The questions that matter are about what it cost, where…
Open the module CDOThe CDO's data checklist
You are accountable for data the business owns, produced by systems you do not run, consumed by people who did not…
Open the module CIOThe CIO's data checklist
You own the estate that every number comes out of, and you are asked to modernise it without stopping the business or…
Open the moduleSelling data and AI
The rest of the Academy teaches the buyer. These modules teach the people who have to find them, open the conversation and build a case that survives the room they are not in — on exactly the same definitions.
Want this knowledge running as a platform, not a project?
SCIKIQ turns these disciplines into one governed, AI-ready data foundation — a live 360 view in 60–90 days, not a multi-year programme.