Hope more universities can take advantage of the expansion in the academic initiative to ensure that graduates are data-literate, no matter what discipline they graduate in. And of course, they should produce more data scientists with data mining and analytics skills.

I am now in an academic position at a small and unique university in the midwest. As an ex-IBMer myself, we are keen to make deeper use of the IBM academic initiative, to develop MIS and Comp Science graduates with data mining and business intelligence skills, and who also have a higher development of consciousness so they have the capacity to creatively engage with infinitely large data sets. Would love to hear more from you on how we can engage with IBM more deeply.

thanks.

One way to curb emerging gaps is to invest in career and technical education (CTE) all all levels – post-secondary, secondary and others. CTE has proven to deliver significant ROI in terms of increased student achievement in traditional CTE fields and others, improved career prospects and earning potential, more community vitality and increased business production. With these benefits out there to be realized, CTE is surely worth investing in – and if businesses work with educators to devise and execute programming, they have an even better chance of success.

The Industry Workforce Needs Council is a new group of businesses working together to spotlight skills gaps and advocate for CTE as a means of bridging them. For more information, or to join the effort, visit http://www.iwnc.org.

Jason Sprenger, for the IWNC