Overcoming the Skills Gap in Big Data Analytics

PATRICIA COTTER Ed.D.

© 2014

DISSERTATION:ANALYTICS BY DEGREE: THE DILEMMAS OF BIG DATA

ANALYTICS IN LASTING UNIVERSITY/CORPORATE

PARTNERSHIPS

Overview of Research• 2013 research study into how employers and

universities can collaborate to achieve job-ready Business Analytics (BA) graduates.

• Four research groups: business leaders, faculty, recent graduates and supervisors of recent graduates.

• Findings demonstrate that BA graduates are lacking real world preparation, use obsolete and irrelevant software training and lack interdisciplinary training.

• The rapidly changing business and technological world is resulting a need for T-Shaped graduates.

Skills Gap: T-Shaped Skills

T-Shaped

graduates possess

deep disciplinary

knowledge along

with a keen ability

to communicate

across social,

cultural and

economic

boundaries.

Source: T-Summit, 2015

Industry Context

• BA has become pervasive as industry

recognise its importance for their business

operations – to determine risk, detect emerging

trends and make strategic decisions.

• Data from digital activity continues to grow

exponentially – 90% of the world’s data has

been generated in just the past 2 years.

• The current shortage of BA graduates with the

required skills is expected to increase.

Industry Context

Challenges and Opportunities

Challenges

• Industry struggling to cope with unprecedented volumes of data.

• New type of BA is now required: multi-skilled, T-shaped graduates.

Opportunities

• Collaboration between industry and universities to develop BA’s with real-world capacity through internships, mentoring, etc.

Research Methodology

• Purpose: explore the perceptions, attitudes

and experiences of BA stakeholders.

• Stakeholder Groups: business leaders who

employ graduates in BA positions, university

faculty in analytics, recent graduates and

immediate supervisors of recent graduates.

• Approach: in-depth interviews with 25 people.

• Results: qualitative interview results provided

critical data previously not gained through

quantitative research methods.

Internal Findings

• Mixed views on interdisciplinary education with a

lack of understanding of the pedagogy.

• Students lack a firm grounding of the theory behind

analytics and data modeling as well as the “soft

skills” required – curriculum deficiency.

• Learning approaches are inconsistent with real-

world collaboration.

• Lack of a clear definition of what “real world” skills

mean resulting in a lack of T-shaped graduates.

• Limited opportunities for collaboration between

industry and education providers.

External FindingsDisconnect between university and industry:

• Interdisciplinary education (IE) – graduates, business leaders and supervisors expressed the need for an IE curriculum – however not part of the University mindset.

• Source of Knowledge – need to bring the rapidly advancing BA innovation into universities and into the curriculum.

• Collaboration – discouraged in the classroom, embraced in the workplace.

• Canned problems Vs real-word disorder –students work on pre-packaged exercises.

Recommendations• Building trust between university and industry.

• Curriculum change is a concept that university understands and where industry can offer invaluable insight.

• Make IE teaching the norm by promoting incentives and faculty sabbaticals.

• In the classroom, allow students to make mistakes, encourage interns to provide feedback, provide a forum for recent graduates and invest in the right technology tools.

• In the workplace, provide student-centered internships and ongoing supervisor engagement.

Student Centered Training Model

Suggested Model

for BA Training

Conclusion

• BA is growing exponentially, fueled by the rapid pace of technological change and industry recognizing that analytics provides a crucial competitive edge in a world flooded with data.

• Universities are recognizing that delivery of relevant student skills and an effective BA curriculum provides their own competitive advantage.

• To meet the high demand for qualified BA staff, universities and industry have a strong incentive to work together.

CONTACT

pcotter@us.ibm.com

www.linkedin.com/in/triciacotter

@triciacotter