IBM announced new Big Data and analytics initiative that aimed to improve job skills.
IBM has added nine new academic collaborations to its more than 1,000 partnerships with universities across the globe, focusing on Big Data and analytics.
The Big Data initiative is designed to prepare students for the 4.4 million jobs that will be created worldwide to support Big Data by 2015.
The company also announced more than $100,000 in awards for Big Data curricula.
As part of IBM’s Academic Initiative, the company is launching new curricula focusing on Big Data and analytics with Georgetown University, George Washington University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Missouri, as well as a new addition to IBM’s partnership with Northwestern University.
IBM is partnering with Dublin City University, Mother Teresa Women’s University in India, the National University of Singapore, and the Philippines’ Commission on Higher Education to offer data-driven degree programs, coursework and specialization tracks.
IBM is also announcing the winners of its 2013 Big Data and Analytics Faculty Awards in which 14 university professors from around the world will receive $10,000 each for top rated curricula designed to develop the business and technical skills required for data-crunching jobs.
“Leaders in business, education and government must take action to foster a new generation of talent with the technical expertise and unique ideas to make the most of this tsunami of Big Data,” said Richard Rodts, manager of Global Academic Programs, IBM.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor predicts a 24 percent increase in demand for professionals with data analytics skills during the next eight years. The need for this specialized talent is fueled by the explosion of Big Data — or the 2.5 quintillion bytes of information generated daily from such sources as sensors, RFID networks, mobile devices and social media.
