THIS IS THE AGE OF “BIG DATA.” AND IT’S CHANGING EVERYTHING.

THE DATA BOOM

We live in an age of big data. It’s changing how doctors treat disease, how humanitarians predict and respond to natural disasters, and how businesses figure out what their customers want.

Companies realize they need to collect and make sense of that data, and data science professionals are increasingly in demand. In fact, IBM projects that the number of positions for people with data and analytics know-how will increase by a staggering 364,000 between 2017 and 2020 in the US alone. According to the same report, the demand for developers (and the number of people in decision-making roles armed with that data) will also increase.

Thus, in order to make sense of all that information, to ask the questions in a way that the answers will be useful, our data-filled future world will need more data scientists and systems engineers.

Businesses are playing catch-up to these new demands. Some are giving their existing employees training in new data science skills; others foster partnerships with other organizations to deal with the influx of data. Others seek to hire employees that already have training in data science, which are offered by a growing number of undergraduate and graduate programs.

The demands of a full-time job, plus life’s other obligations that always seem to pile up, don’t leave people with much free time to refresh their education, not to mention the money that’s needed to do so. Though online courses are more convenient and affordable, it’s not always easy to know if the education will help effectively prepare one for a new job or is truly trustworthy.However, technological advances mean that the problems that data present are likely to get more complex, not simpler. With out current methods of education and schooling, for many people who have already entered the job market, it’s not appealing or feasible to go back to the classroom.

EDUCATION FOR ALL

Fortunately, it seems that Springboard has cracked the code for effective online courses in order to meet the growing demand for people who can be smart with data. It offers a personalized online course system that uses a combination of mentor programs, video calls, and online peer communities to help students fully engage in their studies.

Most notably, Springboard gives students professional portfolios and readies them for the job market by allowing them to customize their trajectories. There’s even a fast-track career boot camp that guarantees that students will get a job within six months of graduation, or their money back.

Source: Futurism