SAS bootcamp: Preparing a new breed of scholars

MANILA, Philippines - Imagine fast-tracking your major area of study in college into a full-blown career in what are becoming some of the most sought after fields in business today ? business analytics, risk management, business intelligence and its allied fields after 90 days. This essentially is what happens when qualified students sign up for Bootcamp, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program under SAS Philippines (SAS PH), a global leader in business analytics.

Running for almost a decade now, the Bootcamp “offers fresh college graduates an opportunity to transition from education to employment,” explained Monica Fabian, HR manager of SAS Philippines.

Fresh graduates of IT, computer science, mathematics, economics, engineering, statistics and business courses from any school can apply for the program. Once they qualify, they will undergo an intensive one-month classroom training in SAS technology and business applications, after which they get deployed to clients for two months of practical on-the-job application of their newly-acquired skills.

“The need for business analysts will continue to grow. Data is increasing, and needs to be analyzed. We see the industry will grow by leaps and bounds, as we need analytics to make sense of all that data,” Fabian declared.

And given the growing trend for this specialized skill, more and more fields are including analytics as a tool in keeping ahead in the rapidly-evolving workplace. “We see health care, power, banking and finance, food, retailing, bioscience and more, adopting analytics in running their business. As such, we see it as an advocacy to mold so-called young bloods into next generation business analysts,” Fabian concluded.

Transitioning from School to the Global Workforce

With globalization and business growth being spurred faster and to greater heights, unstructured data coming in from disparate sources such as mobile devices and the social media need to be analyzed quickly in order to gain useful insights in a timely manner. By leveraging that information, businesses can have better planning and forecasting, can make more accurate decisions, and identify key factors that may be pivotal to the enterprise’s growth.

Currently, the country only accounts for about 10 percent of the $212 billion global analytics industry. And according to research firm Gartner, by 2015, big data and business analytics is forecasted to create a demand for 4.4 million jobs, but only one-third would be filled.

Recognizing the impending talent shortage, some universities have already started the ball rolling in designing courses that supports business analytics as a specialist field of study. Some of these schools include the Asia Pacific College, Asian College of Science and Technology, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, De La Salle Health Sciences, Mapua Institute of Technology, University of the Philippines-Diliman, University of the Philippines-Los Baños, University of the East, and University of Santo Tomas – all are currently SAS Academic Partners.

SAS has initiated tie-ups with their academic partners in designing specialization courses for analytics, as well as complementing this with training in their Bootcamp program. 

For the scholars, the Bootcamp experience allowed them to immerse themselves through different specializations in various client settings. Bootcamp, in effect, gave them the specialized skill set that they used to leverage into viable careers in the corporate world.

Now working as professionals in various industries here and abroad, Bootcamp graduates are changing how big businesses do business.

Christi Marie Densing, who was recently cited as one of SAS’ 2014 CEO Awardees, explained that data analytics allows companies to formulate promos and marketing strategies that truly matter to their clients. This is why she attests to the vital role that data analytics plays in keeping their customers. “Beyond giving me an appreciation of the end-to-end process, I realized that there is more to the theoretical side ? all these inspired me to want to study again,” she said.

For more information about the SAS Bootcamp program, you may contact Monica Fabian, HR manager of SAS Philippines via +632 7922200 / [email protected].