MRS Advanced Certificate course

I signed up for the MRS Advanced Certificate in Market & Social Research as I want to start my career in the research industry. Although I had some experience of research, this was quite limited and I hadn’t worked in a research specific role.
I wouldn’t have been able to complete the course without the support of the Research Academy. I studied via distance learning but at no time did I feel alone or isolated, despite many areas of the course being new to me. The Research Academy has a fantastic learning environment with all the support, resources and reading I needed.
However, it’s the fantastic team at the Research Academy that I valued most. Their passion and enthusiasm for research was contagious, and learning from their vast array of knowledge and experience was priceless to me. My personal tutor was absolutely amazing. She was always happy to lend an ear and provide constructive feedback. I can’t recommend the Research Academy highly enough.

As Head of Citizen Engagement, my team and I support Welsh Parliament committees by facilitating primary research projects with those with lived experience, service users and front-line staff. The MRS Advanced Certificate in Market and Social Research Practice has proved to be essential training for the team. It has further improved our skills to conduct high-quality social research with reliable insights for committee inquiries. The training has bolstered our ability to deliver an excellent parliamentary service and provide internal and external stakeholders (including Welsh Parliament Members) with necessary assurance on the qualifications and expertise of our work.
I must commend the Research Academy and the remarkable lecturers for their invaluable contribution to our journey. Successfully completing the course whilst also delivering on the day job can be demanding, but the dedication and support from our tutors ensured success. Moreover, the fantastic learning materials and expertise of our tutors played a pivotal role in our transformation and learning, and we are immensely grateful for their guidance and support.
From application, to help with exam preparation, the Research Academy team gave my team all the support, guidance and expert teaching needed to reach their potential.

I decided to take this course thanks to the support of my employer, Rare. Although the company is in London, I work and live overseas, so the simple fact that it was an online course was a great advantage for me. I only had to travel to UK to take the exam… twice. Yes, I failed in my first attempt. The Research Academy team were very helpful, always following my evolution through all the exam preparations, and helping me improve.
In the beginning I was scared of the idea of having to attend online live classes due to my poor English. It is true that it was difficult, but I found a really considerate and very kind team, always keen to help. They were very, very patient teachers when correcting the assignment drafts. Their recommendations were all accurate and led me to hit the target. I think the results would be very different without so many corrections and suggestions. And it helped me to improve my English at the same time, as well!

I came into research through a less traditional route and achieving the MRS Advanced Certificate helped me progress my career, allowing me to move internally from a data-led insights role into the Aimia research team. Doing this course has given me confidence in my own ability and increased my external credibility.
What I liked about studying with Research Academy was the structured learning process, access to lots of helpful materials, and the ability to lean on the experience of the tutors who know what the MRS wants. It was comforting to have a community of students to share ideas with via the seminars and on the online course forum.
Studying for the qualification alongside a busy work and family life was a challenge, and keeping up with the reading and the coursework was a conscious effort. However, thanks to the support and flexibility of the Research Academy staff and the excellent pre-exam materials made available online, I was successful and even managed a Merit in the exam.

I was thrown right into the deep end with the MRS Advanced Certificate. Having just graduated and landed my first full-time job in market research, I was sponsored by my company to complete this qualification almost straight away.
At the start I found it very difficult to put what I was learning into context and this came across in my coursework. The task of writing a proposal to recommend a programme of research was daunting. However, Mia and Siavush couldn’t have done any more for me (and I know that sounds cliché but it’s true). The feedback they gave was difficult to swallow at first, because I could see I had a lot more work to do, but they gave me exactly the right direction that I needed. Mia even phoned me up and talked me through everything, making sure I knew what I needed to do. The course leaders really motivate you… and it clearly works because I ended up getting a Merit!
As the course went on, things started to parallel with what I was doing at work, and with a little more experience I could see where all this research theory would come into play. This helped in the lead up to the exam. This required a lot of dedication, and I was lucky that my company gave me the time and space to prepare. The course support is really good here too!
Overall, this course involves time and motivation, especially if, like me, you’re starting it with little experience. But the challenge is worth it and the support that I was given was amazing! The course leaders don’t just provide really good academic teaching, but they show that they actually care. For someone who struggled to get to grips with it, this was so important.
Another great thing about this course is that I’m using the theory every day! Unlike some courses where you feel half of the content you won’t use ever again, this really opens your eyes to the field of research, and makes you appreciate it and proud to be part of it.

I found this course really helpful in validating what I already knew from working in the industry as well as teaching me some of the theory that supported the methodology and techniques I already knew and used. It was a useful course in helping me benchmark how we ran proposals and projects through our research agency and was a good opportunity to speak to others in research that I wouldn’t have otherwise engaged with. The tutors were supportive and always made time for questions and the platform was well organised and detailed.

BDRC’s researchers have taken the MRS Advanced Certificate under the guidance of the Research Academy for two years now, and we have three researchers on the course this semester. We use the online tutoring sessions, which work really well for students who work full time and find face-to-face sessions less convenient. The Research Academy provides great quality, interactive tutoring, which is truly invaluable.
I particularly appreciate the personal engagement from Mia and her team. They keep me up to date with the course content, help arrange enrolments and are quick to resolve any queries we have. The team has worked hard to accommodate the needs of our students.
It is clear that Research Academy staff care about providing a genuinely useful course, not only helping students gain the MRS qualification but also imparting skills they will use throughout their research careers.

Studying with the Research Academy was a pleasant and worthwhile experience. The course is designed to help students grasp key points, and my personal tutor was fantastic in terms of helping with coursework and the exam, as well as practicing market research in business setting. The online learning was flexible and enjoyable, and a great complement to the textbook.
My tutor was professional, lovely and enthusiastic in nature, and willing to share his knowledge. I am grateful for his patience with my coursework. He was always willing to go through the text to suggest improvements. At the online exam, when I was held up by technical difficulties, he actively contacted the administrator for a solution and encouraged me to continue trying to communicate with the system until it responded – I probably would have gave up without his help.
To borrow the concept of NPS, I would strongly recommend the Research Academy to anyone who is preparing for the MRS Advanced Certificate – beyond the exam, the practical aspect of the course and the abundant personal experience of the tutors will benefit you and inspire you in your work.

Having financial support from the Market Research Benevolent Association (MRBA) enabled me to participate in the Research Academy’s fully tutored course, thanks to their MRBA Skills bursary. I found the course really supportive and encouraging personally, while keeping me ruthlessly focused on what knowledge and understanding I needed to demonstrate in the exam.
I really enjoyed challenging myself and developing my own research scenario for my coursework as it gave me the opportunity to use the methods and techniques I am most likely to utilise when I practice. And I’m so delighted with my result – it’s a real confidence boost as I set out on the path to forge a new career in qualitative social research.

I cannot thank Research Academy enough for their help with the MRS Advanced Certificate in Market and Social Research. I joined the online course, which at first was quite daunting, given that I had not studied for more years than I care to mention! I was very quickly put at ease, with an informative and friendly first class. It is also worth saying how easy the remote connection was. The online classes worked really well, coordinating everyone calling in from multiple locations.
The tutors are very supportive, managing to find a great balance between helping you to understand the course, without hand-holding. The feedback on the coursework was particularly helpful – it was always clear and constructive.
I started using the material I was learning from day one and I believe that it helped me immensely as I was moving from client to agency side. Thanks to the support of Research Academy I passed the course, even obtaining a Distinction in the exam.

We chose to send Andrew, a Junior Insight Manager on our team, on the Research Academy’s MRS Advanced Certificate online course. The course gave him exposure to fields of research we don’t often come across, so it helped broaden his skill set. It was also good to have a professional perspective on key components such as questionnaire design. An area we found particularly useful was the process of both creating and responding to a brief as this helped build awareness of business processes from a commercial aspect. He has taken this element and built upon it both quickly and very usefully from a business perspective.
The Research Academy’s online course was a good choice for us, as it enabled our small team to focus on their day job during key hours. Andrew also appreciated the ability to participate in webinars and learn from the input of fellow pupils as well as tutors.
The Research Academy’s MRS Advanced Certificate course is now a key formal training element for our new employees.

The Research Academy tutors are very responsive, and I felt supported throughout the course. Feedback on the coursework is thorough and very constructive, which really helped me improve my work. It feels like your personal tutor is with you every step of the way.
I also used the Research Academy’s revision resources extensively. The weekly revision tasks and other online resources made revision easy and I received invaluable feedback on mock answers from the course tutors.
Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Research Academy to anyone who wants to study for the MRS Advanced Certificate.

We’ve sent a number of students now to the Research Academy to study for their MRS Advanced Certificate. In all those I’ve sent I’ve been able to see a clear improvement in their work, even over such a relatively short time. It’s not just a case of an increase in knowledge and vocabulary either; I can see that the course has made them think harder about what they do and why they do it. This has had benefits for my business and my clients, helping to fuel our recent growth. That’s why we’re putting all our executives through the programme and will continue to do so.

Starting my career on a rotational grad scheme, I wanted to take the MRS Advanced Certificate to give myself a good technical grounding and to fill in gaps in my exposure to methodologies. I decided to study with the Research Academy to bring the content to life and to add some structure to the daunting concept of studying alongside my day job.

I found the support of the Research Academy particularly useful when writing my IA – the assessment is unlike anything I’ve written before, combining an academic style with a brief and proposal format. Having a personal tutor to bounce ideas off and to review my work as I went was invaluable, particularly as discussion is such a fundamental part of the IA. Talking through not only the right approach, but also why I wouldn’t apply other methodologies or techniques really helped to deepen my understanding. I now feel a lot more confident in the decisions I make when reviewing proposals and undertaking my own research, and am well equipped to justify my decisions to the wider business.

The team at the Research Academy was wholly supportive throughout my time studying to obtain the MRS Advanced Certificate. As someone with little exposure to traditional research practice, I found the coursework assignment especially challenging. I had little idea about how research was commissioned and what a proposal should look like. My personal tutor Mia noticed that I found this challenging, and proactively approached me with suggestions about how I could improve the design of the research outlined in my assignment. Having listened to her ideas, I reworked the assignment. This process of revisiting the work, with my tutor’s suggestions in mind, really helped to cement my understanding of the research design process. Thanks to the help from Mia and the rest of the Research Academy Team, I was able to obtain a Merit for the coursework component!
I thoroughly enjoyed studying with the Research Academy. The course content was diverse and well-delivered, and I felt fully supported at every turn. The course imparted essential technical knowledge which I will carry with me throughout my research career.

The teaching provided by the Research Academy was exceptional, both in terms of the standard and professionalism of the tutors, and the provision of study tools. The fortnightly online webinars (at a choice of times) work particularly well for people who have a 9-5 job.
In addition, the feedback you receive from your personal tutor is particularly helpful, not just to complete the coursework to a high standard, but to make you become aware of all the things you need to consider when leading on a research project.
I would highly recommend the Research Academy to deliver this course!

I really enjoyed studying with Research Academy. You need to commit to the course and invest enough time to do the required reading, attend the webinars and do the weekly tasks. I wasn’t the best at this in the first few weeks, but once I caught up it was fairly easy to keep on top of things.
The tutors push you to work towards achieving a Distinction rather than scraping a Pass so some of their feedback seemed a bit harsh at first and made me doubt how ready I was for the exam. When we spoke however, they were able to reassure me that I’d be able to succeed, which I did!

The MRS Advanced Certificate is a tough qualification on its own, but whilst studying I had a challenging personal and professional time. The support that Mia and Siavush at the Research Academy were able to offer was second to none. I felt reassured by them. They gave me the confidence and support to pass the MRS Advanced Certificate despite the difficulties I faced. I would highly recommend them as a training provider.

The Research Academy is great. They take a hands-on approach and provide a dedicated tutor for every student. They help you craft your coursework paper, tighten up your language and refine your research thesis. They are extremely knowledgeable about both the MRS process and research methods. They also take care of the heavy-lifting on the administrative side. I submitted my coursework to their website, and they booked the exam, sent off the coursework and helped us download the exam software.
The weekly lectures are interactive and everyone has an opportunity to ask burning questions about the exam, discuss specific areas of research or explore a particular pain point. The lectures include information on how to structure your answers, what to expect in the exam and how to manage the time constraints. The content they provide includes ample sample answers and videos for you to review.
I couldn’t have asked for a better learning experience and I highly recommend them to anyone who is even considering taking the MRS Advanced Certificate.

The MRS Advanced Certificate course at the Research Academy provided a good overview of the market research industry and introduced me to a broad range of market research techniques. In addition, the coursework and case studies enabled me to put theoretical knowledge into practice. The entire course helped me to gain a better understanding of all the essentials of market research, ranging from project management to presentation of market research to clients. This gave me a good range of skills that I could use in my junior position as a market researcher.
Since students have to study for an exam and write a paper, the workload is high, and should not be underestimated. Thankfully, the team at Research Academy do really well when it comes to tutoring and supporting students. Their webinars mix theoretical knowledge, practical exercises, and time to ask questions. Students can contact a personal tutor if they require support. The Research Academy guides you through every step of the course in a professional and helpful way. I recommend them strongly to anyone considering the MRS Advanced Certificate Course.

When I was made redundant from my university educational research post, I felt that my research career was over as the sector was badly hit during the economic downturn. However, the idea struck me that I could transfer my skills to market research so, with some trepidation, I signed up for the Research Academy’s MRS Advanced Certificate course. During the first webinar, I knew that I was back in research, and back to stay. The tutors quickly rebuilt my confidence and the course both refreshed my skills and enabled me to transfer to market research.
Initially, as an experienced researcher, I found it a little tedious that we had to justify all design decisions in our coursework research proposal as I’d never had to do this in ‘real life’ proposal writing. However, I quickly began to appreciate that this was a great approach for any proposal writing, even if it meant that in ‘real life’ you might not have to write down all your thinking.  I am now happily working as a freelancer and I’ve been amazed how much great educational research is taking place in the market research sector!

We’re delighted that all four of our employees who undertook the MRS Advanced Certificate qualification in the 2015/16 academic year passed both elements of the assessment (exam and coursework). As a company we are thrilled to achieve a 100% pass rate! Our specialist support partner, the Research Academy, has been instrumental in making this happen, along with our in-house mentoring system. We chose the Research Academy as they have a good track record in this area. They provide personal tutors who have worked in market research at a senior level, and they have a good face-to-face and webinar training programme on key topics.