Jignasa Sinha

Think Twice Before Starting a Career in Data Analytics

City Tech

While there’s a rise in job opportunities, the educational prospects are low in India.

By Jignasa Sinha

Bangalore, April 8, 2019: Bangalore is regarded as the hub for AI and data science jobs and innovations. Regardless of the entire numerous job opportunities, there are only a few institutes that offer a professional degree course in data science or analytics.

Eminent institutes like Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) offer a course in this field. They have limited seats and only meritorious students get the chance.  There are more than 200 engineering colleges in Bangalore but only a fraction of these offers a course in data analytics.

Prajjwal Bisht, a student of Vivekananda Institute of Technology (VKIT) college says, “ It is so difficult to find colleges that offer a specialization in data analytics, after my 12th grade I tried applying for this course but could only find a few colleges with high cut-offs for entrance exams. I couldn’t clear the tests and settled for computer science. My college doesn’t offer any such course and I have to learn all the software on my own.”

According to reports, there a 45 percent increase in jobs in data analytics since 2017. In 2019, India has more than six percent of job openings in the world for data analysts. Prashant Joshi, CEO of Fractal Analytics in Bangalore says, “Bangalore has companies like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and IBM that have opened departments for this budding field. Sadly, most of the aspirants suffer due to confusing online courses that are not always updated. The colleges in India are not willing to update their curriculum for the growing tech market in India.”

Data analysis is a new-age technological boom in the global market. This phenomenon deals with data and how it can be transformed into a useful source for extracting accurate information. Data analysis has helped the growth of software in artificial intelligent (AI) and machine learning systems.

Students looking for a career in data analytics first pursue a degree in engineering with computer science and information technology as their subjects, and later enroll for online courses to learn the skills required for jobs. Siddhant Kanwar, a data analyst says, “I studied engineering from Delhi and later took one gap year from studies to pursue a career in this field. I had to switch between two to three websites to learn all the computer languages and software knowledge required for data analytics. It was difficult as there is no specified curriculum for this subject.”

Institutes like IIT Kharagpur, Praxis Business School and Manipal University offer a PG Diploma in data science. Harish Dalwai Pattal, marketing head of Praxis Business School says, “in Calcutta, we have faculty with more than 20 years of experience but in Bangalore, we try to get industry practitioners and data scientists to teach the students.”

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