Business analytics provider SAS has launched the SAS Student Academy to help staff a big data analytics revolution, through a joint initiative with Birmingham City University (BCU).
At the launch at BCU yesterday, the university's vice chancellor Cliff Allan explained why the academy was launched.
"It's very much about nurturing and developing the right skills at high levels as we can see the growing industry and business need for data analysts and scientists," he said.
Students in the academy will be provided with the necessary software, teaching materials and advice, as well as access to SAS customers at dedicated careers fairs, to connect the students to potential employers.
The firm hopes to feed a growing need for specialists in big data as found in research SAS conducted alongside sector skills body e-skills UK. The research, based upon analysis of demand exhibited by IT recruiters found that demand for UK big data specialists is to increase by 92 per cent over the next five years.
The report, which is scheduled to be released in full later this week, also found that those skilled in big data could earn 20 per cent more pay than other IT staff.
At the unveiling of the findings in Birmingham yesterday, Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK said that the average UK salary in the third quarter of 2012 was £24,000 - with IT staff in the same period averaging £43,500, and specialists in big data averaging £52,000, showing the importance of the role to employers.
In the past five years there have been over 35,000 advertised vacancies for big data staff in the UK, the report said - with data scientists, who are often recognised as playing a key role in big data analytics, a relatively niche occupation, accounting for only a "very small proportion" of overall demand in the area.
But while the premiums are high and the opportunities are vast, the research also found that a common concern for employers was to find and attract the right talent, and this is the reason that SAS claims it is launching the academy.
"We are experiencing serious skills shortages," said Mark Wilkinson, managing director of SAS UK&I.
"The SAS Student Academy is designed not only to equip students with the big data analytics skills that are so desperately required, but in so doing to help UK businesses take advantage of the innovation and efficiency big data can deliver. Unless we act now, the UK risks falling behind countries like China and India where investment in these skills is on the rise," he added.
According to a Centre of Economics and Business Research (CEBR) report released earlier in the year, big data analytics is set to add £216bn to the UK economy from 2012 to 2017, and create 58,000 new jobs. BCU's Allan was quick to note the different uses of big data across all industries.
"There is enormous breadth and scale of big data analytics with roles in government, supermarkets, consumer orientated companies and there is even a need in universities," he said.
