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SAS Opens Big Data Academy in UK
In the UK, business software giant SAS has teamed up with Birmingham City University (BCU) to launch a Student Academy, educating future big data professionals.
 Rival analytics giant IBM is already running a large number of partner schemes with universities worldwide, with high profile November launches in the US and Canada.
At this week's BCU launch, university's Vice Chancellor Cliff Allan pointed to a clear 'growing industry and business need for data analysts and scientists' and said the new centre was 'about nurturing and developing the right skills at high levels'. In addition to technology, advice and teaching materials, students will get to meet potential employers from among SAS customers at dedicated careers fairs.
The firm's recent research conducted with sector skills body e-skills UK suggests that demand for UK big data specialists could 'increase by 92 per cent over the next five years' - and that those with big data skills could earn a considerable premium above other IT professionals. e-skills CEO Karen Price said the average IT salary in the UK was £43,500 in Q3 this year, while specialists in big data averaged £52,000. Demand for experts in big data core technologies noSQL and Hadoop has grown by 295% and 210% respectively during the year.
Mark Wilkinson (pictured), MD of SAS UK&I, comments: 'We are experiencing serious skills shortages. 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.' Allan adds: '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'.
Web sites: www.sas.com and www.bcu.ac.uk .
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