The Tribune

THE University of The Bahamas announced a partnership yesterday to let students learn data analysis skills for career development.

Acting University of The Bahamas (UB) President Janyne Hodder said the programme would be a data analytics career accelerator.

To provide the course, UB is partnering with Smarter Bahamas.

“Students will be provided with the technical and job readiness skills needed to launch a career in data analytics, a field in dire need of trained Bahamians to fill already in-demand job opportunities,” Ms Hodder said.

“The data analytics career accelerator certificate is innovative in its content, in its format, and in its delivery. It fills a much-needed and overdue gap and how we meet needs within the job market and the needs of job seekers, particularly those young or those who are still fairly early in their career.”

The four month programme includes three months of instruction and one month of real-life work experience. Six months of career coaching and job search support will also be provided.

Sebas Bastian, the ambassador to Central America, said he created Smarter Bahamas to fulfill gaps related to technological training.

“I opened up the newspaper I think it was some month in July of 2018,” Mr Bastian said. “It was this grand announcement about how we're going to make Grand Bahama the new tech hub. So, I phoned the then-prime minister and said, while that is a very admirable and ambitious and much-needed quest, how are you going to build a tech hub with no technicians?

“Where is the training facility that is going to train these individuals that's going to work in this new technological market in this tech hub that you're trying to build? And then I went home, and I crafted the framework for Smarter Bahamas. Which was designed to fill the national skills, particularly in the area of technology.

“We need to make sure that we're educating ourselves in a matter of relevance and that we're killing ourselves with in-demand skills. And then there's a direct correlation between the global job market and the curriculum. And that's why we're here today.”

The programme will start its first cohort on October 10th. Smarter Bahamas will subsidise 60 per cent of the cohort.