South Africa’s world leading data science training institute, the Explore Data Science Academy (EDSA), will soon offer its range of online data science and data engineering courses in Kenya. This presents talented, ambitious and hard-working young people in that country with the opportunity to be trained for a career that has been labelled “the sexiest in the 21st century.”
EDSA’s CEO, Shaun Dippnall, explains, “We have always cherished the goal of training young data scientists in other African countries and now, after four years of perfecting our training methods at home, we are ready to spread our wings into key African countries.”
EDSA started in 2017 when it offered a full-time, one year course to 100 young aspiring data science students. This course has been recognised by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has partnered with EXPLORE to offer the same course. Many of EXPLORE’s graduates are currently working within its consulting services business EXPLORE-AI on international projects including Thames Water UK.
EXPLORE’s success prompted it to offer courses online. “By going online, we can reach a far wider audience and we now train thousands of young people every year. The success of our full-time course has been phenomenal and we have a 95% placement rate after graduation with excellent starting salaries. Our courses are designed to be practical and deal with real world problems in business,” says Dippnall.
Kenya is the ideal African country for EDSA expansion. According to the World Bank, during 2015-2019 Kenya’s economic growth averaged 5.7%, making it one of the fastest growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. This performance was boosted by a stable macroeconomic environment, positive investor confidence and a resilient services sector. The Covid pandemic dampened growth, as it did across the world, but experts believe that it will bounce back in 2021, where growth is expected to reach 6%. The relative sophistication of the economy also makes it an ideal environment for the training of data scientists who can make a significant difference to the efficiency and effectiveness of companies as the world moves deeper into the digital, information age.
Dippnall continues, “We target young people between the ages of 18 and 24 and this fits perfectly into the Kenyan demographic, where about 20 percent of the population is between 15 and 24. We were encouraged by a recent report* which said that Kenya has steadily achieved high levels of innovation relative to its level of development and has been an innovation achiever (a country that outperforms on innovation compared to its peers at similar levels of development) for nine consecutive years.”
The data science universe is expanding all the time in complexity and EDSA is right up there, offering courses in:
- Its flagship learning pathway, Data Science, where students uncover the magic of how data can be used to solve difficult problems in any context.
- Data Engineering: learn how to store, move, process and manage the powerful data platforms that run large enterprises.
- Data Analytics, gathering and analysing data to deliver business insights.
- Business Intelligence: mastering the art of telling stories from data through beautiful, insightful and value-driving visualisations.
Dippnall concludes, “The innovative design of our learning platform and the passion of our scientist facilitators equip EXPLORE learners to do great things. Facilitators are experienced in tackling real-world problems and skilfully mentor learners throughout the programme.”
Potential applicants can gather all the important information, including how to apply, details of the courses available, qualifications and aptitudes needed, application deadlines and costs by visiting https://explore-datascience.net/. For more information on the EXPLORE data science programme go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCkwnPur7jA
