The students of today; our heroes in the era of bigger, more complex data

Reading a blog article recently, this sentence caught my attention: “The digital economy infiltrates almost every aspect of our lives – from banking and shopping to dating and learning. For some organizations, the digital economy brings limitless opportunities to connect with customers, innovate collaboratively and develop new experiences. For others, it means disruption to traditional business models. How can you take advantage of the opportunity – without becoming a casualty of disruption? The answer is in the data, a natural resource of the digital economy. But data without analytics is value that’s not yet realized.”

Guest blog by Elisabeth Versailles, Academics Relationship Manager at SAS.

 

Data scientist. Still the job of the future

The digital economy results in an ever-increasing demand for people with analytics knowledge and expertise. People who have the technical skills to solve complex problems – and the curiosity to explore what problems need to be solved. In short, what we call a data scientist.

To answer the market demand for data scientists, we initiated the SAS Certified Young Potentials program (SCYP) a couple of years ago. With this program, SAS offers students free e-learning packages to get trained in SAS and get SAS Certified.

Our SCYP program has recently been expanded. It now offers the possibility to get up to 4 different certificates. Students can learn SAS at their own speed via e-learning and on top of that, they now have the possibility to prepare for the certification during the Study@SAS Week from 26 February till 2nd March.

Study@SAS Week

During the Study@SAS Week, students can follow free coaching sessions for each of the 4 certificates. At the end of the week, they can attend the SCYP Job Event where they get in touch with SAS customers and alliance partners sponsoring this program and looking to hire new data scientists.

In 3 years’ time, the number of SCYP participants grew by 70% and last year, almost 150 students succeeded the certification.

The SAS Certifications are recognized and valued by the market and are definitively a qualitative asset on your CV, a way to increase your value to your future employer.  The certifications are also an excellent basis to develop other SAS skills in the future, either technical or more in-depth knowledge in the SAS Business Solutions.

It's not just in the SCYP program that students can practice and apply analytics. Our internships as well offer a unique opportunity to discover how analytics can make a difference in people’s life or drive change in organizations. It allows students to apply their skills to solve actual business problems and to learn from the best. I’ll go deeper into this topic in one of my next articles.
 

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