With the need for data scientists growing exponentially, we look at solutions being carried out in order to cope with big data requirements.
In today’s News Roundup, we are highlighting a new training programme for data scientists. Venture Beat, Business Cloud News, and The Wall Street Journal, have all recently ran articles about private companies, such as KPMG and Rackspace, are tackling the growing big data requirements by training a new generation of data scientists.
KPGM, Rackspace and a variety of other companies have joined forces with a London training and recruitment firm, Pivigo, to sponsor a five-week workshop in London for “analytical Ph.D’s and scientists.” The workshop aims to provide a mixture of training and practical experience with “the main coursework being to complete a real life big data problem” in small teams of 3-4 members.
The quality and type of participants is something to note. According to the article in the Wall Street Journal “it’s attracted 85 students with backgrounds in astronomy, neuroscience, and other areas of study from 24 countries.”
The need for a data workshop like this is justified in the Business Cloud News piece, by Vice President of Rackspace Nigel Beighton who explains how their firm faces “first-hand experience of the struggle to find these skills – from our own search for this talent and from what our customers are telling us – and the 1,000 per cent increase [in data scientist jobs] being reported shows that we are not alone.”
Matthew Eric Bassett, Director of Data Science at NBC Universal and a teacher at the course suggests how the workshop “presents a great opportunity to combine the theoretical knowledge with real world situations for students to make the transition to data science.”
Furthermore, KPMG is pledging £20m towards the ‘KPMG Centre for Advanced Business Analytics.’
Let’s hope this is the beginning of large scale investment into the education of data scientists. It is abundantly clear how vital they are in both the private sector and in nonprofits looking to enhance their work, just as charity: water explain in their recent post.
Many thanks to Venture Beat, Business Cloud News and the Wall Street Journal for highlighting the action being carried out to train big data scientists. Be sure to follow them for further insights to this fascinating topic.