New SAS Programme for Students Charts Path from Analytics Skills to Dream Job

SAS Skill Builder for Students connects SAS learning pathways, certifications and career resources

With continued high demand for data science talent, analytics leader SAS has launched a new program for higher education students to learn analytics skills and earn valuable certifications sought by employers. SAS Skill Builder for Students is a free, global, 24/7 virtual learning portal that offers access to SAS software, e-learning and certifications, as well as career advice and ways to connect with employers.

"According to the Philippine Institute for Developing Studies (PIDS), the talent for data science remains underdeveloped in the country. The SAS Skill Builder for Students provides the opportunity for students to learn and build the necessary skillset to face the fourth industrial revolution. SAS is committed to growing and gearing up Philippine students to become future analytics and data experts for the workforce,” said Aileen Rodriguez, Managing Director (Philippines), SAS Institute.

The path to a great analytics career
In 2019, a PIDS study discovered a mismatch in the industry, where demand for functional analysts stood at 66 per cent, but higher education institutions were producing mostly data engineers. Such incidences highlight the scarcity of talent among Filipinos, and challenges faced by prospective employers. The SAS Skill Builder for Students can help more students seize those jobs by providing access to:

• Free cloud-based software: SAS OnDemand for Academics and SAS Viya for Learners.
• Free e-learning: Courses in foundational skills like data literacy and point-and-click data analytics, programming, visual analytics and visual statistics, statistical analysis, predictive modeling and machine learning.
• Certification pathways to simplify the journey to data science certification and other valuable SAS certifications.
• Exclusive certification exam discounts for those who register.
• Badges that signal valuable skills to employers in areas such as data visualization and machine learning.
• Career resources to inspire students and help them succeed. Students can explore what it means to be a data scientist and data analytics professional, how to set themselves apart and connect with employers offering work that taps into their passions.

*An academic email domain is required to access SAS Skill Builder for Students.

Thriving in a data-driven world
SAS Skill Builder for Students incorporates data from a variety of industries to gain valuable and relevant experience. Students can also learn one of the most valuable skills for success in today’s society and workplaces: Data literacy.

In a world awash in dis- and misinformation, it is critical to be able to consume, interpret and understand data. SAS Skill Builder for Students includes access to Data Literacy Essentials, a SAS course that introduces data basics and strategies for using and interrogating data, discovering meaning, making decisions and communicating data. The course follows the journeys of a concerned parent, a small business owner and a public health expert, who each use data to navigate and problem-solve through the pandemic.

The course also focuses on the ethical challenges of working with data. Data ethics refers to how we seek out, interpret and present data responsibly, including the moral judgments we make when working with data. The course covers how biases influence the ways we interact with and communicate data and provides guidance on ways we can work with data more responsibly.