Beginner friendly
StudyLink eligible
Scholarship available
Work experience included
Live classes
32 weeks · Online, live · NZ Diploma, Level 5
This diploma ends with ten weeks on a live client project inside one of our 300+ partner companies. The 22 weeks before that teach you business analysis, front-end engineering and UX design — everything you need to be useful the day you walk in.
No previous tech or design experience required.
What this programme is
Business analysts used to write requirements and stop. UX designers used to hand over designs and stop. Neither role stays in its lane any more: analysts are expected to understand users, designers are expected to understand the business, and both are expected to work confidently alongside developers. People who can do both halves are considerably harder to replace than people who can do one.
Over 32 weeks you'll learn to map a business problem, design and prototype a solution, test it with real users, and build the front end yourself. Then you'll take that toolkit into a real company on a live brief, with a mentor. Business analyst also sits on New Zealand's Green List for long-term skill shortages, which makes this combination a deliberate choice rather than a coincidence.
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You want to move into UX or business analysis and you need delivered work that proves you can do the job, not just a qualification
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You're an analyst, coordinator or project manager wanting to move towards customer-facing digital and product roles
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You're currently in analysis, coordination, project management, or customer-facing roles and ready to level up into digital and product
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You want the broadest range of roles open at the end — design, analysis, product and everything in between
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You can commit properly for 32 weeks and treat it like a job, because that's what gets you the result
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You want to learn self-paced, without industry experience
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You can't make live weekday daytime sessions in phase 1
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You're after a full three-year degree
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You only want the design half — take the accelerator instead
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You want a job guarantee — four in five job-seeking graduates work in tech within 12 months, but we can't guarantee it
How the 32 weeks run
Designed backwards from the placement — everything in the first two phases exists because you'll need it on a real project.
Phase 1 — five weeks of hands-on front-end coding first, then the analysis and design foundations built on top.
Phase 1
Weeks 1–12
Understand the business, and learn to build the thing yourself.
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Front-end coding — responsive, mobile-first interfaces with HTML, CSS and JavaScript
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Understanding users and business needs — techniques for finding out what's actually required
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Interface design and prototyping — Figma, with AI-enhanced workflows
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Business process modelling — mapping how work flows through an organisation today
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Requirements and documentation — writing it down so developers can build it and testers can check it
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Modern UI design principles and practices — for web, mobile and AI-driven interfaces
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Human-centred design — designing for usability and accessibility from the start
Phase 2
Weeks 13–22
Research properly, design deliberately, and explain your reasoning to people who'll challenge it.
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Agile and design thinking — the frameworks teams actually run on
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UX research and synthesis — interviews, personas and journey mapping
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Information architecture — structuring content so navigation makes sense
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AI in the UX workflow — automating the repetitive parts, sharpening research insight
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Presenting your designs — communicating clearly to stakeholders and standing behind decisions
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Ethics, accessibility and emerging tech — designing responsibly as the tools change
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Career preparation — portfolio, professional profile and interviews for both BA and UX roles
Phase 3
Weeks 23–32
Real clients, real stakeholders, real deadlines — with a mentor alongside you.
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Work on a live BA or UX project with one of our 300+ industry partners
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Collaborate with business analysts, designers, developers and stakeholders
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Weekly mentoring and feedback from experienced practitioners
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Take part in product meetings, reviews and collaborative sessions
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Manage deadlines, explain your reasoning, iterate on feedback
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Real industry experience under your belt — work you can speak to in detail at interview
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Make industry connections, and get career support into applications
Tools you'll actually use
Plus the tips and shortcuts that come from people currently working in the industry, not from a textbook.
MENTORED WORK EXPERIENCE
A project four Mission Ready candidates designed and built inside Datacom, in ten weeks.
The project
Datacom asked a Mission Ready cohort to design and build an internal platform where staff could share the tools and innovations they were creating outside their day-to-day roles. Ten weeks later, Product Hub existed.
Host
Datacom
Team
4 candidates
Duration
10 weeks
Mentor
Dipesh Trikam
01 · The brief
Datacom staff were building useful tools and side projects outside their day jobs, with no shared place to put them. The team was asked to design and build one.
02 · What they did
Worked as a product team inside Datacom — using AI-enhanced workflows, the team moved from brief to working product in 10 weeks. A timeline that would've taken significantly longer with traditional methods. That speed is what employers are seeing in their best teams right now. They proved it - so can you.
03 · What they delivered
AI Product Hub: a working internal platform where employees upload and share the tools and innovations they've created. Live inside the business, not a prototype in a folder.
10 weeks
From brief to a working product inside the business
4
Candidates working as one product team
8 years
Datacom has partnered with Mission Ready
You'll learn how to use AI in professional workflows - not just as a trend, but as tools that change how modern UX and BA work. This means you'll graduate with skills that are immediately valuable in 2026+ roles.
Datacom's mentor on the cohort noted that with AI in the mix his team could now go from idea to product within 10 weeks — a shift from when reaching even a proof of concept was hard. He described watching the group's confidence and ownership grow until they were operating like a real product team.
Dipesh Trikam · Principal Consultant, Datacom
On this project
Mikha came from architecture, where projects took months of drawings and often never got built. He enrolled in Mission Ready's business analysis diploma and worked on Product Hub inside Datacom. His verdict on the programme is the argument this page rests on: employers value workplace learning experience, and that is what it gave him.
Published by Datacom
Read their write-up of this cohort ↗
Datacom's own article about this cohort and the people who built Product Hub.
GRADUATES
Graduates you can look up, at companies you can visit. None of them had a tech or design background when they started.
Track record
1,202+
Graduates launched into tech since 2018
4 in 5
Job-seeking graduates working in tech within 12 months
300+
Industry partners hosting real projects
Category 1
NZQA's highest provider rating
2023 & 2024
Named Provider of the Year by Independent Tertiary Education New Zealand in two consecutive years.
2024 & 2025
Named a finalist for Best Contribution to the New Zealand Tech Sector in two consecutive years.
2024
The highest honour awarded to a tertiary provider in New Zealand, judged across teaching quality, learner outcomes and industry impact.
Meet your trainer
You're taught live by people who do this work for a living, and mentored by industry professionals during your placement. Two minutes with them is worth more than another paragraph from us.
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UX Design Trainer
Design Manager at MEGA NZ. Teaches the craft the way it's practised inside a product team, because that's where she spends the rest of her week.
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AI Product Manager & Business Analyst Trainer
"Fash" is a technology leader with over 20 years’ experience in digital product innovation and business transformation across telecommunications, utilities, and financial services. Currently, Fash works as a Digital Infrastructure Product Manager at Spark NZ and lead facilitator of this programme.
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UX Design Trainer
A long-standing UX leader and NZ Hi-Tech Awards finalist. Grounds everything in live workflows and real processes rather than textbook exercises.
Where you'll do your placement
Placements are matched to your interests and the work you produced during training — not allocated at random. A few of the organisations our learners have worked with:
What you get on paper
A recognised New Zealand diploma and micro-credentials along the way, so progress shows on your CV while you're still studying.
You finish having delivered work inside a real company, able to talk through what you did and why — with someone there who can vouch for how you worked. No qualification substitutes for it.
On completion
Diploma in Digital Technology Development and Design (Level 5, 120 Credits), awarded after your mentored work placement.
Mission Ready HQ is an NZQA Category 1 provider — the highest confidence rating New Zealand awards, from the 2023 External Evaluation Review.
Time commitment
Phase 1 runs in the mornings, phase 2 in the evenings, and phase 3 follows your host company's hours. Worth checking honestly against your commitments before you apply.
Phase 1 class
Mon–Fri, 9:30am–1:00pm NZST
12 weeks of live morning sessions.
Phase 2 class
Mon–Fri, 6:00pm–9:00pm NZST
10 weeks of live evening sessions.
Your own work
On top of class hours
Budget 30–35 hours a week overall — project work outside class is where most of the learning happens.
Phase 3
Hours agreed with your host company
10 weeks of work placement, normally standard business hours.
Duration
32 weeks
Delivered online from anywhere in New Zealand.
Next intake
28 September 2026
Apply early if you're using StudyLink — loan and allowance applications take time to process, and they're the most common reason people miss an intake.
$9,960
Apply nowApplications are reviewed individually. Applying isn't a commitment to enrol.
Fees and financial aid
The diploma is $9,960, or $6,640 with the AI-Ready Impact Scholarship — a saving of $3,320. You don't pay any of it to begin.
With the AI-Ready Impact Scholarship
$9,960
$6,640
NZD, covering all three phases and your work placement.
Fees are subject to change based on government policy and other factors.
Ways to cover the fees
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AI-Ready Impact Scholarship — reduces the fee by $3,320. Combine it with Pay When Successful so you only pay after passing.
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StudyLink — student loans and allowances are available for this diploma. A full-time allowance is paid to you weekly if you're eligible.
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Pay in installments — agree a payment plan with your mission advisor.
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AI-Ready Career Grant — your final phase is zero fees.
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Pay When Successful — for selected candidates, defer the balance and pay once you've passed.
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Zero fees upfront — nothing is due before you start.
Eligibility differs by option and depends on your residency, previous study and situation. Ask an advisor and we'll tell you exactly which apply to you.
Getting in
Straightforward, and deliberately open. No previous tech or design experience is required — just curiosity and the willingness to put the hours in.
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New Zealand or Australian residency or citizenship
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NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy standards
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Proof of English proficiency if English isn't your first language
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No previous tech or design experience needed — most of a cohort starts from scratch
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We review your application individually — there's no automated filter
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You'll have a conversation with an advisor about fit and funding
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If it isn't the right programme, we'll tell you and point you to one that is
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Applying costs nothing and doesn't commit you to enrolling
FAQ
This is wider. The accelerator covers UX design and a placement in 20 weeks. This adds business analysis and front-end coding, runs 32 weeks, and opens analyst, product and design roles rather than design alone. Both have open entry and neither needs prior tech or design experience. If you only want the design half, the accelerator is cheaper and faster; if you want the widest range of roles open to you afterwards, take the diploma.
The analysis content will cover ground you know. The front-end coding almost certainly won't, and that's where most analysts tell us they get the real gain — being able to build a working interface changes how developers deal with you. If you want the design skills without repeating the analysis you already have, say so when you apply and we'll talk honestly about whether the accelerator suits you better.
Phase 1 runs weekday mornings and phase 2 weekday evenings, so a full-time job alongside it isn't realistic. Some people manage part-time or weekend work. Be straight with an advisor about your hours and we'll tell you honestly whether it's workable — including when it isn't. If you're eligible for a StudyLink allowance, that weekly payment is how a lot of learners make the numbers work.
Business analyst sits on New Zealand's Green List — the government's long-term skill shortage list. Demand is strongest for experienced analysts, and the junior end is competitive like everywhere else, which is exactly why the mentored placement matters: you finish with delivered work rather than only a qualification.
The old idea of an entry-level job — low responsibility, lots of hand-holding — is shrinking. What's replacing it is small teams where you're expected to contribute quickly. That's what this programme prepares you for. Because you finish having already delivered work for a real client, you apply as someone with experience rather than as a graduate with a certificate. Four in five of our job-seeking graduates are working in tech within 12 months. That also means one in five isn't, and we won't pretend otherwise.
No, and we won't claim to. What we do: host employer showcases, coach you one-to-one on applications and interviews, put you in front of our industry network for leads and recommendations, and keep supporting you through alumni access long after you finish. We prepare you and position you. Getting hired is a shared effort.
Most people in a cohort start with no tech or design background. What beginners usually need isn't technical help — it's someone to show them the order to learn things in and confirm that the confusion is normal. You get structured guidance, mentored projects with real feedback rather than exercises, and a cohort going through it at the same time as you.
Yes, delivered online from anywhere in New Zealand — but these are live sessions with facilitators and your cohort, not pre-recorded videos you watch alone. You'll be in calls, reviews and group work most days. Your work placement may be remote or on site, depending on the host company.
Talk to us early rather than quietly disappearing. Sometimes the answer is a different pathway, sometimes it's a later intake, sometimes it's a change to your funding arrangement. Withdrawal and refund terms depend on how far in you are and which funding you used, so an advisor is the right person to walk you through your specific situation before you enrol.
