Alteryx has announced the launch of a new program called Advancing Data and Analytics Potential Together (ADAPT). ADAPT is the newest pillar of the company’s corporate social responsibility initiative, Alteryx For Good, and will offer free data training to thousands of workers globally who have found themselves unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Every graduate will be certified in the fundamentals of data analytics through Alteryx Core Certification and will be given the opportunity to advance to Udacity Nanodegree program in predictive analytics. This program is part of a broader drive to expand data literacy, upskill workers adversely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and educate a new wave of citizen data scientists to thrive in the data economy.
Last year, the World Economic Forum report, Data Science in the New Economy: A new race for talent in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, found that data science roles were among the “highest in-demand roles in the labor market.” This global demand is not limited to the information technology sector; the value and importance of data insights, especially in the environment brought on by COVID-19, is now appreciated across every industry and vertical. The report urges, “In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, all sectors will need to undergo a fundamental transformation to fully absorb the potential dividends of the data economy. Such transformations will need to be accompanied by appropriate talent investments in data science skills.”
“COVID-19 underscores the importance of something we’ve believed in for a long time – data analytics technology complements and enhances our human capabilities. We believe this program will help us prove that everyone can become a data worker,” said Dean Stoecker, Co-founder and CEO of Alteryx. “If the pandemic has demonstrated anything, it’s that governments, healthcare providers and businesses of all kinds need to embed data analytics throughout their organisations. Nimble, data-led businesses also need educated data workers. We’ve been working for years to train citizen data scientists and match them with accessible, useful tools. ADAPT recognises that the timing is now critical for businesses that urgently need to transform and evolve.”
The ADAPT program is offered globally to unemployed workers and is designed to meet the urgent demand for data science and analytics beginners and professionals. It provides a challenging and up-to-date curriculum delivered as a 125-hour bootcamp for future data workers. Classes are taught via a combination of interactive lessons, videos, webinars and podcasts. One-on-one technical support will also be available.
Participants in this academically rigorous program will learn the fundamentals of data science, before moving on to the increasingly important area of predictive analytics. The first stage of certification culminates with a timed two-hour exam, and upon completing the final predictive element, graduates will receive a Udacity Nanodegree.
“Over 30 million Americans and countless more around the world already have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and without massive retraining, we’re facing massive, structural unemployment. Yet, ‘talent shortage’ is still ranked by CEOs as the greatest risk to organisational change,” said Gabe Dalporto, CEO of Udacity, the online training platform for technical skills and careers. “Udacity is offering a free month of access to our Nanodegree programs for those who qualify through the ADAPT program. We hope this will help people in their time of need and provide them a path to a better future.”
Key online learning modules include creating a dataset, classification models, A/B testing, Time series and Segmentation
For students, learning doesn’t end with the program. Newly minted citizen data scientists will then be invited to join the burgeoning Alteryx Community and encouraged to practice their new skills in hack-a-thons and other community-led problem-solving opportunities.
“We hope that ADAPT will help fuel a broader movement by bringing more people into the analytics fold and empowering them to thrive in the data economy,” said Amy Heidersbach, Chief Marketing and Community Officer at Alteryx. “Re-entering the job market is never easy, but we will extend the best possible educational support and resources to workers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. This program is unique in its scale and ambition – it has academic rigour, recognised, resume-enhancing certification and it provides an introduction to the global data science community. Minting thousands of new data professionals is about expanding and diversifying what it means to be a data worker and creating new ways for people to connect and learn from each other.”
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