Developing an Industry-led Data Analytics Technician Program for Upstate South Carolina

企业越来越多地使用数据分析来做出战略性的、数据驱动的决策。随着数据分析成为一种常规的商业工具，迫切需要能够在各种工作角色中工作的数据分析技术人员。目前，只有少数证书和副学士学位课程可供希望成为数据技术人员的学生使用。因此，从事数据分析职业的学生数量跟不上劳动力需求。该项目旨在解决南卡罗来纳州北部地区对数据技术人员的迫切需求。它将通过建立一个商业和行业领导团队来实现这一目标，该团队将与斯巴达堡社区学院合作，定义数据技术人员在工作场所取得成功所需的技能。学院将与这些行业合作伙伴合作，设计并实施数据分析证书课程，该课程将使用在线教育方法为整个地区的学生提供服务。该项目将从扩展和维护业务和行业领导团队开始，然后执行知识、技能和能力（KSA）分析，以确定数据技术人员所需的技能。来自KSA分析的信息将用于创建可远程管理的证书课程。一旦教师接受了教授新课程的培训，学院将招收学生参加证书课程，重点是招收女性。该项目的预期成果包括创建一个新的数据分析证书项目，支持远程和在线同步参与，培训新课程的教师，以及增加数据分析领域女性的招聘、保留和毕业。该项目的结果将公开，以促进全国范围内的数据分析技术人员教育和商业和行业领导团队模型。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Businesses increasingly use data analytics to make strategic, data-driven decisions. As data analytics becomes a routine business tool, there is an urgent need for data analytics technicians who can work in a wide range of job roles. Currently, only a few Certificate and Associate Degree Programs are available to students who wish to become data technicians. As a result, the number of students pursuing a data analytics career is not keeping pace with workforce demand. This project aims to address the critical need for data technicians in the upstate South Carolina region. It will do so by establishing a Business and Industry Leadership Team that will partner with Spartanburg Community College to define the skills data technicians need to be successful in the workplace. Working with these industrial partners, the College will design and implement a Data Analytics Certificate program that will use online educational approaches to reach students throughout the region. The project will begin by expanding and maintaining a Business and Industry Leadership Team, and then perform a Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) analysis to determine the skills required of data technicians. Information from the KSA analysis will be used to create a certificate program curriculum that can be administered remotely. Once faculty are trained to teach the new courses, the College will recruit students into the certificate program, with an emphasis on recruiting women. Anticipated outcomes of this project include the creation of a new Data Analytics certificate program that supports remote and online synchronous participation, training of faculty members in the new curriculum, and increased recruitment, retention, and graduation of women in data analytics. The results of this project will be made publicly available to advance data analytics technician education and the Business and Industry Leadership Team model nation wide. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.