Developing an Industry-led Data Analytics Technician Program for Upstate South Carolina

Businesses increasingly use data analytics to make strategic, data-driven decisions. As data analytics becomes a routine business tool, there is an urgent need for data analytics technicians who can work in a wide range of job roles. Currently, only a few Certificate and Associate Degree Programs are available to students who wish to become data technicians.

As a result, the number of students pursuing a data analytics career is not keeping pace with workforce demand. This project aims to address the critical need for data technicians in the upstate South Carolina region. It will do so by establishing a Business and Industry Leadership Team that will partner with Spartanburg Community College to define the skills data technicians need to be successful in the workplace.

Working with these industrial partners, the College will design and implement a Data Analytics Certificate program that will use online educational approaches to reach students throughout the region.

The project will begin by expanding and maintaining a Business and Industry Leadership Team, and then perform a Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) analysis to determine the skills required of data technicians. Information from the KSA analysis will be used to create a certificate program curriculum that can be administered remotely. Once faculty are trained to teach the new courses, the College will recruit students into the certificate program, with an emphasis on recruiting women.

Anticipated outcomes of this project include the creation of a new Data Analytics certificate program that supports remote and online synchronous participation, training of faculty members in the new curriculum, and increased recruitment, retention, and graduation of women in data analytics. The results of this project will be made publicly available to advance data analytics technician education and the Business and Industry Leadership Team model nation wide.

This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.