The ‘teen’ decade saw data science transitioning from an industry buzzword to being adopted across various enterprises and applications on a giant scale. More and more Indian businesses are now using data science to understand how they can make their processes more efficient. One of the key reasons behind this is also the generation of big data. As companies are becoming competitive and are wary of being left behind, this has driven the demand for professionals skilled in data science and analytics. The trend is clear — professionals who are skilled in data science are being rewarded, along with a rising emphasis on upskilling keeping data, artificial intelligence and machine learning in the centre.
As analytics and machine learning reach deeper into organisational operations, it can be clearly seen that there is significant disruption at the workplace with data scientists and data analysts preferring to experiment with newer tools. Skills are evolving and are constantly being aligned according to the industry standards and requirements.
In 2019, the analytics industry grew to $3.03 billion in size and is expected to double by 2025. This growth can also be seen in the rising salaries, as with sectors like Telecom offering the highest median salary for data scientists at ₹18 lakh per annum. This is followed by the Media and Entertainment industry, which offers a median salary of ₹10 lakh per annum to data scientists and analysts.
To bridge this gap in demand and supply, noted online education platform upGrad has collaborated with acclaimed global academic institute IIIT-B to offer a one-of-its-kind, academically rigorous and industrially relevant PG Diploma in Data Science.
What Makes A Data Science Programme Truly Great?
The PG Diploma in Data Science by upGrad will feature the IIIT-B’s faculty discussing the conceptual depths of topics such as Data Science, Machine Learning, AI and Big Data Analytics, among others. This will be complemented by industry-relevant case studies from major industry verticals by industry leaders from upGrad’s industry network. Further, their strong placement network, industry mentorship and the credibility of a PG Diploma will provide the learners with the perfect push to accelerate their careers in Data Science.
This PG Diploma by upGrad will help Data Science aspirants upskill and learn job-relevant skills with a customised Five Track course. Being the only ed-tech startup in the market that is offering this level of personalization to keen aspirants looking to upskill, upGrad’s PG Diploma programme will help students understand data science by not only going into the depth of the subject, but also by addressing the key challenges faced by the aspirants.
About The Programme
After analysing and understanding the key factors, depth, as well as the challenges faced by learners, upGrad and IIIT-B, divided the programme into five tracks. Each track has specific projects, assignments, topics which would be aligned to the learners background to help them strengthen their command over the subject and help them leverage business expertise and team/project/client management skills.
After impacting 10,000 working professionals and delivering 2 million hours of learning experiences, upGrad concluded that there needs to be a separate track or a specialisation for every data science aspirant so he/she can get the career outcome he/she is aiming for.
The critically-acclaimed data science programme, which has also been ranked among the Top 5 programmes by Analytics India Magazine, has now been divided into five tracks based on the following career outcomes:
1. Business Intelligence
- Entry-level role in the data industry
- Ideal for freshers and professionals up to 3-4 years of work ex
- Specialization in SQL and NoSQL Databases, and Storytelling with Advanced Visualisation
2. Business Analytics
- A role which required a high-level understanding of data with solid domain expertise
- Ideal for professionals with 3+ years of experience with a good understanding of the domain they’ve worked in
- Specialization in Advanced Machine Learning and Business Requirements – including but not limited to – advanced SQL, business problem solving through various frameworks, revenue and operational cost modelling, etc.
3. Natural Language Processing Specialisation
- A technical role requiring a good understanding of predictive modelling and statistics. This is a data scientist role with specialisation in NLP
- Ideal for people having a technical background/prior experience in a data role
- Specialization in Advanced Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing
4. Deep Learning Specialisation
- A technical role requiring a good understanding of predictive modelling and statistics. This is a data scientist role with specialisation in Deep Learning and Neural Networks
- Ideal for people having a technical background/prior experience in a data role
- Specialization in Advanced Machine Learning and Deep Learning
5. Data Engineering
- A highly technical role requiring a good understanding of programming and data
- Ideal for people with a software engineering background
- Specialization in Data Modelling, SQL and NoSQL Databases, Big Data, and Building Data Pipelines
This division was thoughtfully created to make the program more focused on specific career outcomes. This efficient approach chalked out by upGrad and IIIT-B also reduces the learning time per week — since learners will focus on specific skills.
Outlook
Over the last year, the data science and analytics industry accounted for 21% of the whole IT/ITeS industry in India in 2019. The analytics outsourcing industry is led by Indian IT bellwethers like TCS, Wipro, Genpact, Tech Mahindra, HCL Infosystems among others that form 35% of the analytics outsourcing market. Enterprises across the board are building up their analytics capabilities and analytics has become the biggest revenue driver for Indian IT bellwethers, captives and domestic firms within their digital portfolio.
It is, therefore, the need of the time to have an efficient, timely and optimal education in upcoming and emerging subjects like data science and analytics. A degree like the PG Diploma in Data Science by upGrad and IIIT-B will make sure that the learning is well-equipped to handle this shift towards intelligent automation, AI and machine learning which is changing the face of data and analytics services.
