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Youth entrusted with bridging Africa data skills gap

SAS Manager: Global Academic Programmes, Andre Zitzke
SAS Manager: Global Academic Programmes, Andre Zitzke

by AKANI CHAUKE 
JOHANNESBURG – YOUTHS around the continent have shown  significant interest in free online courses aimed at upskilling the  continent with data science skills.

Global analytics firm, SAS, is offering the courses to address the  ever-increasing demand for these qualified professionals.

Courses are offered via the -learning portal, Software Certified Young Professionals, to interested students currently enrolled at a university or higher degree-granting institution.

“The ultimate goal is to help any interested student leave university  with working SAS knowledge and accreditation,” said Andre Zitzke, SAS Manager: Global Academic Programmes.

Enrollment in the Certified Young Professionals programme gives students access to such courses as Basic Programming, Advanced Programming, Data Visualisation, Machine Learning and Statistics.

Students can choose one, some or all of the courses, although not many take on all five.

“The only cost to the students is the cost of data, as this is a cloud-based course and internet access is required,” Andre explained.

Usually, the certification exam is written at SAS office or Pearson Vue but because of the current coronavirus circumstances, SAS has made it possible for students to write at home until the end of July 2020 for free.

According to SAS, a recent social media campaign drew interest from more than 1 300 individuals across Africa.

Pearson Vue hosts a database of SAS-certified people.

Interested individuals were from Algeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia.

– CAJ News

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