Training Courses
Over the years The OR Society has organised over 1000 courses, seminars and conferences, including major international events; and we have earned a reputation for friendly, efficient and professional organisation. Quality is our major concern. Those providing the courses in this programme have been carefully selected for their expertise in the field and their experience as trainers. They are all required to conform to a detailed quality specification in the work they do. Detailed feedback from delegates on all aspects of the courses forms an integral part of the quality control process.
Many of the courses are held in The OR Society's training suite which is in central Birmingham, close to the National Indoor Arena (NIA). This area is well-signposted, easily accessible from the motorway network and offers extensive parking facilities. Moreover, The OR Society is within easy walking distance of Birmingham New Street station, which is well served from all parts of the country, including a direct rail link from Birmingham International Airport. For those staying overnight there are excellent hotels within walking distance.
Need an in-house course? We may be able to help
Where an organisation needs to train several staff at the same time, an in-house course may be advantageous and we are always willing to negotiate the provision of our courses on this basis. Alternatively, special terms can also be arranged for block bookings of five or more delegates on any given course.
The OR Society’s 2012 Training Programme – relationship to Analytics
2012 training course information is listed on this web-site, and is also available as a PDF Guide. However course dates may have changed since the Guide’s creation, so we recommend always double checking training course dates on this website.
This year we have a selection of 30 courses, which represent a mixture of old favourites and newcomers. In the Guide referred to above, we have adapted our presentation to attract interest from the increasingly popular field of Analytics. We have put our courses into the context of the wider Analytics field. There is no standard definition of Analytics, so we define and use one here. The Society commissioned a piece of research in 2011 to help to understand tile relationship between O.R. and Analytics and we've classified about half of the courses under three headings used in that work; 'Prescriptive', 'Predictive' and 'Descriptive'. The diagram below should make it a little clearer what we mean by those headings.
Readers of this Guide who are new to O.R. can see the level of Analytics they're already using and be able to match courses to their current and future needs. Of course, the assessments are our own judgements, and we don't claim they're perfect. Hopefully, they do give a useful guide to where the courses are aimed.
Quite a number of our courses don't fit into this schematic, so we've introduced a new grouping, 'Foundations', which focus on skills and techniques underpinning the Analytics groupings described above. The description is not meant to imply that these are introductory courses.
What the course fees include
Course fees include tuition, a copy of the course notes, lunch, and tea or coffee in midmorning and mid-afternoon breaks. Overnight accommodation, breakfast and evening meals are not included.
Non-UK residents may be able to reclaim the VAT.