A2 Radio: Analytics Education Today, Meeting Tomorrow's Demand

A long time ago when I was a student at a small liberal arts university, the university made a bold move. For the first time ever all incoming freshmen would be required to purchase personal computers. It was a big deal, particularly for a liberal arts school. But this was the revolution that was coming, according to the administrators. This was a tool that would be useful, regardless of your major or field of study or your career. In the future, everyone would use computers. So this new technology would be baked into the curriculum. You would learn to use your PC if you were a computer science major. And you would learn to use other, different tools, if you were a sociology major, or an English major. Fast forward to a few years from now. When my children head to college, I expect that the cutting edge technology that is baked into the curriculum that everyone uses, regardless of their field of study, will be analytics. We're not quite there yet, but we are getting closer. And it won't be just aspiring analytics professionals who will be learning these skills. Some specialists may learn considerably more about analytics and the underlying principles and tools. But everyone will learn how to apply analytic insights. Today's Demand for Analytics Pros Let's get back to today for a moment and not get ahead of ourselves. The recent evolution of analytics and data science education has led to more analytics masters degree programs sprouting up at universities across the country to meet the demand for skilled data professionals. The development follows a 2011 McKinsey report forecasting a shortfall in talent available. Career-minded technology professionals sought out programs to help them join this specialty and gain the best work-life balance and some of the highest salaries available in technology. The demand has also spawned data science and analytics MOOCs, boot camps, and other programs, but quantitative recruitment specialist Linda Burtch said in a blog post these programs will begin to thin out, eliminating "ineffective or overpriced options that can't deliver on their promise of creating career options. However, the demand for these alternatives will not recede, so the ones that are found to be worth the time and investment will flourish." Meanwhile, across many organizations, business users seem to be gaining greater analytics literacy. It used to be that businesses would seek that so-called rare data science unicorn -- the technology pro with a background in statistics, coding, and a specific business domain. It's no surprise that finding a person with that combination of skills was no easy task. That's why that vision may be evolving as organizations look to create a team that includes all three skill sets from three different people rather than trying to find one person who possesses them all. Which brings me back to the idea of baking analytics into all college and university curriculum. Analytics is poised to expand from a discrete department within organizations to something that is embedded in the life force of an organization. Business users from every department will use analytic insights to test their ideas, discover new products and services, and predict customer demand. As we move to that new generation of business, many more workers will need basic analytics literacy if not actual analytics skills. Analytics can provide feedback on every action taken, whether you are in retail merchandising or government or healthcare. Dr. Alice Louise Kassens, professor of economics at Roanoke College in Virginia, is blazing the trail on bringing analytics education to a wider audience, beyond the statistics and predictive analytics Masters degree students. Kassens has worked to embed analytics into the undergraduate economics curriculum at this liberal arts school. The training, which includes a class Kassens teaches in econometrics, gives students an edge as they enter the workforce. Kassens will join me as a guest on AllAnalytics radio on Wednesday, March 8, at 1 pm ET/10 am PT to talk about how analytics education has evolved, and how education has evolved to embrace analytics. Register now to listen in and ask questions during this event as we all get ready to welcome a new generation of analytics pros and analytics literate workers to the workforce.