Few years back there was an IT boom across the world, which brought in jobs for millions of engineers around the country. While IT still holds an integral part of our industry, but the hottest skillset has been reassigned. The industry is buzzing with Big Data and Analytics. No wonder Data scientist has been mentioned as the sexiest job of the 21st century!
Analytics is currently abuzz with lack of right talent. A study that we did earlier this year reveals that 67% of all analytics leaders in India consider ‘Unavailability of Analytics Talent” as one of their top most challenge.
For someone who has had quite a few years of experience in a different field and holds an entirely different skillset, changing his or her career path wouldn’t be an easy task. What would be a starting point is a formal education in the field of Analytics. We do have the education industry flooding with courses in Analytics and many of our prestigious colleges have realized the need of the hour. But we do not have many courses that deal with the requirements of a working professional, and make a concrete impact into their career path change.
Great Lakes PGPBA Program
Great Lakes institute of Management introduced an exclusive program 3 years back for working professionals planning to enter the field of analytics. The Great Lakes Business Analytics program has been created in collaboration with corporate partners and senior professionals in analytics industry. The program schedule and delivery is designed keeping in mind the time constraints and learning requirements of working professionals.
The Great Lakes Post Graduate Program in Business Analytics equips candidates with the skill sets required for managerial, techno-functional roles in analytics. Its curriculum has been uniquely designed to meet these features and provides exposure to relevant tools like SAS, R & Tableau.
The Bangalore Launch
Bangalore is undoubtedly the hub of Analytics in India. According to our estimates, almost 26% of analytics professionals and 29% of analytics companies in India are based out of Bangalore. Given the breadth of analytics that is currently being executed from Bangalore, the city has a vast appetite for the right talent. There are few b-school that offer analytics courses, notably being IIM Bangalore, IIIT-B, IISC and IFIM B School.
The PGPBA by Great Lakes is among the oldest analytics courses in India, was offered from Chennai and Gurgaon. This year, the institute has decided to launch the PGPBA in Bangalore as well.
The PGPBA program would be launched in Mid-September at HSR layout Bangalore. The program would be delivered through webinars, with one weekend classroom session every month. In addition to the classroom sessions, there would also be online recorded lectures &and live webinar hosted by Great lakes faculty & industry professionals. This would provide the flexibility to all professionals to participate without affecting their official tasks.
Speaking on this launch, Prof. Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay, Program Director (PGPBA) and Professor, says “Great Lakes’ PGPBA program is ranked within top business analytics programs in the country and is trusted by several working professionals. Ever since its inception in Gurgaon and Chennai, we have been receiving several requests from corporates and candidates to launch the program in Bangalore too as 20-30 % of our batches comprise of students from BLR. And this September, Great Lakes’ is rolling out the PGPBA in Bangalore with the aim to bridge the skill gap and train candidates and make them employable for business and techno-functional roles in Business Analytics. The enormous workforce in ITES in Bengaluru has now a program where they will learn from the very best in Analytics”
Who is it for?
The PGPBA class of Great Lakes consists of professionals from diverse industry segments and functional roles. Professionals joining the program range within work experience of 8 to 9 years with minimum work experience of 2 years and the highest which has gone till date is 28 years. Majority of the candidates are from IT and Technology field followed by Analytics and consulting, BFSI, Healthcare, telecom and more. And these professionals hail from organizations such as Cognizant, Accenture, IBM, Infosys, Deloitte, Amazon, Honeywell, Reliance, TATA AIA, Bank of America, Oracle, Cisco, IBM and more such reputed organizations.
What to expect?
The PGPBA program provides the right exposure to real world applications, ensuring that the professionals are equipped to apply their learning in the industry. The industry oriented pedagogy, hands-on exposure and highly acclaimed faculty help the candidates gain analytics competencies thereby preparing them for business and techno-functional roles in analytics.
We also spoke to some past students of the PGPBA program. Anjana Agrawal, a technology professional with 15+ years of experience & Great Lakes PGPBA alumnus from Gurgaon said, “The Business Analytics program provided us with the opportunity to learn from some stellar faculty and impressive industry guests. Prof P K Viswanathan has inspired me with his simplicity and ability to explain a complex concept in simple words, Prof Vaidy with his enthusiasm, Shailesh with his practical experience and simplicity and Prof Bappa with his experience and vast knowledge with a capability to relate a concept to a business problem.”
Also, Neelesh Bora, an entrepreneur and Great Lakes PGPBA alumnus from Chennai says, “Great Lakes’ Business Analytics program was a highly rewarding experience. What Great Lakes’ faculty bring on the floor is brilliant and peer interactions add a lot of insight to your thought process. There are lots of on ground examples shared which encourage you to learn more. Simultaneously, the industry stalwarts talk about the projects of the past and future; it certainly gives you a good idea of market knowledge.”
For more information, visit http://pgpba.greatlakes.edu.in/
