A free digital data skills programme aimed at training thousands of jobseekers as data-skilled professionals has been launched in Ireland.
University College Dublin (UCD)’s professional academy has partnered with SAS, a data and analytics software company, to offer the programme aiming to equip those seeking employment or currently furloughed with “in-demand” data skills.
Course content will be delivered online with both self-paced learning and live classes delivered by UCD professional academy lecturers, along with a tailored software portal where users can practice their new skills.
The SAS STEP programme, which aims to train up to 10,000 jobseekers across Ireland and the UK, will also provide possible routes into employment for alumni and look to partner with other organisations — such as SAS partners and customers — to place candidates into job roles.
“This will be facilitated through use of an online badging system provided by Credly, a leading digital credential movement which makes talent more visible and opportunity more accessible,” SAS said.
Employment
Credly will enable candidates to search and access job vacancies that align with the skills they have acquired.
“SAS STEP represents a golden opportunity to improve your data skills or even retrain for a career at the cutting edge of innovation across industries, following a challenging year for many in terms of job security,” said Roderick Crawford, vice president of SAS UK and Ireland.
“It is... our intention to place candidates into employment in as many cases as possible, both internally and across our extensive network of customers in search of these skills.”
Director of UCD's professional academy, Aaron McKenna, said: “Retraining people for the ‘new normal’ is easily said and often difficult to get to grips with. SAS STEP is a practical and actionable programme that the UCD professional academy is proud to help bring to Ireland.”
The programme spans from basic data literacy to data science such as AI skills and advanced programming over four learning pathways — data literacy, data analyst, data engineer and data science.
The foundational data literacy pathway, comprising around eight hours of content, has now launched alongside the 150-hour data analyst course.
The data engineering and more advanced data science pathway, requiring a strong background in maths and statistics, will be released later in the year.
You can find out more about the SAS STEP programme at www.sas.com/step.
