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.