STEM Learning - Data Warehouse and Microsoft Power BI Reporting Solution

STEM Learning in York is a leading provider of training and other support to teachers in the UK. They deliver high quality continuing professional development courses to STEM teachers - training that empowers teachers to improve the outcomes of young people studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They also provide free online resources for teachers and they manage the STEM Ambassadors programme - a national network of experienced volunteers from industry who go into schools to work directly with young people.

STEM Learning holds important data about the work it does with schools and teachers in several different IT systems:

1. A web based course booking system.
2. A database of STEM Ambassador school engagements.
3. A database of website registrations by teachers who want access to free resources.
4. A database of information about schools – pupil numbers, phase of education, percentage of free school meals etc.

Our challenge was to create a data warehouse and reporting solution that would become a ‘single central source of truth’, making it easier for the management information team in York to report KPI data to funders and get an overview of all engagement with a particular school.

The solution we’ve built includes:

• A future-proofed data warehouse built in Microsoft SQL Server and hosted in the Azure cloud.
• A set of exemplar Microsoft Power BI reports – interactive visualisations that show progress against funder KPIs together with other data insights.
• Training for STEM Learning staff so they can ‘own’ the solution and extend it with new data sources and new reports.

The benefits of the SkillsLogic solution are:

1. It requires no new hardware. The SQL Server based data warehouse is hosted in STEM Learning’s Azure cloud. STEM Learning already has Microsoft Power BI as part of its Office 365 account.
2. It brings together multiple data sources to create a more accurate and accessible picture of STEM Learning’s engagement with schools, colleges and teachers.
3. It’s extensible. The data warehouse design means STEM Learning can take full ownership of the solution and can extend it to include new data sources.
4. It is a significant time saver. Standard KPI reports are quick to develop and STEM Learning can now use Microsoft Power BI to explore data in new ways, create interactive reports and share insights with colleagues.

Handover of the solution to STEM Learning included a training day. STEM Learning got an in-depth technical overview of the solution, guidance on how to refresh data in the warehouse, how to add new data sources and how to extend the Power BI reports.