Covid-19, digital transformation, and the need to get operative and precise insights quickly have created a surging demand for data experts and competition for every worker in this area.
Written by Ofir Karako, VP of Professional Services in Aqurate, a subsidiary of UCL.
Experienced data experts are a valuable resource that has become an integral part of every organization. The digital revolution the world has been experiencing in the last three years requires a lot of experienced working force. The demand for technical workers doesn’t stop with High-Tech. The accelerating pace of automation, especially during Covid, has created massive demands for these workers in other industries that have a harder time attracting suitable workers in light of High-Tech salaries.
Programmers, analysts, and data people are also wanted in sectors of trade and industry, banking and finance, and health – all of which are in the midst of an advanced digitalization process that requires data accessibility and taking part in the data revolution.
The gap between the academy and market demands
Candidates entering the job market lack the latest skills, and a significant gap is created between what is taught in the academy and the skills and tools required in today’s industry.
Every company must act on its own to bridge these gaps and do the proper training for its workers.
Creativity with training a quality personnel
The lack of people made training organizations work creatively. The most prominent trend is training outstanding academics for data software development roles. In these areas, academic training, the ability to understand the logic of making the imbodied data that is piling up in the organizational data systems, and the process of converting it into business insights with added value are all important.
The best example of that is that of the ministry of health, which had to establish a national data factory for the fight against the Coronavirus. Already in 2019, the ministry of health was equipped with the most updated technological tools for managing, integrating, and optimizing the data that was flowing from hundreds of end units such as hospitals, health clinics, laboratories, PCR test units, border control, and more. These tools were designed to make the data accessible to the state so it could shape its policy. Information such as the point in time when the basic reproduction number is rising, or the moment the Covid ward reaches critical overload.
But acquiring the tools wasn’t enough. There was a need to establish and train a department of programmers to operate the tools in the data factory. The ministry of health got hundreds of 8200 programmers that went through accelerated and specialized training, and they were the most significant factor in winning the fight against Coronavirus.
Due to time pressure and the gap that was made, we developed a specialized course suitable for experienced programmers who were integrated into the data factory. This helped to produce instant results and tipped the scale in the fight against the coronavirus in our favor.
Another example of outstanding cooperation is one we have with El-Al, which opened a Talend center of excellence in its office for its growing needs. Also, in this case, we were partners in developing a training course suitable for El-Al’s needs.
Simultaneously, we are collaborating with universities and offering the opportunity to complete the final project using our tools to bring more data professionals into the market.
We at Aqurate recognize the growing understanding in the Israeli market and believe it is appropriate and valuable to provide opportunities for dismissed soldiers who did not serve in technology units such as 8200. Soldiers from combat units have their added value as well. Based on this, Aqurate built an entire methodology for training, escorting, and integrating into the job market.
We offer dismissed soldiers from combat units full training for the BI developer role, with a strong emphasis on hands-on skills using Talend. This boot camp-style program will empower those who achieved a minimum of 5 practical units in their high school final exams to quickly acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed as a BI developer, even without prior experience.
This training approach is more hands-on and intensive, similar to a boot camp. It provides the workforce with individuals who can hit the ground running and immediately meet the constantly evolving demand for practical proficiency in the job market.
At the beginning of March, another course for Talend developers will start and train the next generation of data world developers.