40 data science scholarships on offer to UK’s brightest young minds

@data_explore EXPLORE Data Science Academy (EDSA) EXPLORE Data Science Academy (EDSA) is investing up to £250,000 in the UK’s strongest and highest achieving graduates by offering as many as 40 free scholarships for its six- month online data science courses. Applications are open until 6th June 2021. 

EDSA is inviting top graduates that have excelled in their studies and consistently performed well academically to apply and expand their knowledge in Data Science. The EDSA has trained over 1000 young data scientists in South Africa since 2017 and has a graduate employment rate of over 90% at above average starting salaries. Its courses were recently recognised by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has partnered with EDSA to offer data science learning to young Africans.  

“We believe that our data science course formula, which includes self-study, team challenges,real world problem solving, and world class facilitators, can produce similar results in the UK,” said Shaun Dippnall, CEO of EDSA. 

“The higher education system is not producing a sufficient number of work-ready graduates. Our courses are designed to ensure that our students, once graduated, have both the technical and practical skills needed in the workplace,” Dippnall adds. 

On completion, the EDSA will assist graduates to find employment through its network. 

Skills shortages

A recent survey found that 73% of UK firms believe they lack the talent to complete AI and data science initiatives. EXPLORE Data Science Academy is bridging that gap by offering a suite of comprehensive online courses including Data Science, Data Engineering, Data Analytics, and Business Intelligence, that deliver specialist training in a real-world environment. 

Dippnall believes this is an ideal opportunity for highly talented Britons to top up their skills and embark on an exciting career in one of the most sought-after careers at no cost. 

“As data becomes the currency of modern business, the race to become data-driven has seen organisations investing heavily in core analytics skills, but lack of support, funding and time available for upskilling are cited as current challenges within the UK data science community,” Dippnall says. 

Real world problem solving 

EDSA’s courses are practical and deal with real-world problems in business.  “The innovative design of our learning platforms and the passion of our scientist facilitators equip EXPLORE students to do great things.  Facilitators are experienced in tackling real-world problems and skilfully mentor learners throughout the programme,” he adds. 

While the EXPLORE Data Science Academy is new to the UK, its consultancy division EXPLORE AI has been delivering artificial intelligence solutions for Britain’s largest water utility supplier, Thames Water, as part of a project to monitor the supply and demand on its network. There are more than 70 data scientists from EXPLORE AI working for Thames Water, many of which graduated from EDSA. 

“The Thames Water success story validates EDSA’s decision to expand out of the South African context and take its place on the world stage. We are excited about our entry into the UK market and I encourage exceptional graduates to apply.   This could well be the gateway for 40 such candidates to embark on a thrilling and rewarding career – at no cost.  What have you got to lose?” concludes Dippnall.

Data Science Course details

Learners will gain an overview of Data Science and Machine Learning – the skills required to be a data scientist.  In the Fundamentals phase they learn how to clean, analyse and visualise data as well as how to effectively communicate the findings. During Machine Learning, students solve real-world problems by building regression, classification and unsupervised learning algorithms in Python. This involves data exploration insight building, improving and communicating models from a raw and unstructured dataset.

 Topics Covered:

 Data Science Fundamentals

• SQL – Create and query a SQL database to extract valuable information
• Python Programming – Create Python functions to process and analyse datasets
• Visualisation – Building dynamic and interactive dashboards using Power BI

 Machine Learning

• Regression – Learn about linear regression, variable selection, feature engineering, regularisation, decision trees, parametric methods, ensemble methods and bootstrapping. Build regression models and test the results of forecasts.
• Classification – Learn about logistic regression, natural language processing, decision trees, support vectors, neural networks, ensemble methods and hyperparameter tuning. Build and optimise classification models to improve the accuracy of predictions.
• Unsupervised Learning – Learn to apply unsupervised techniques, clustering, dimensionality reduction and recommendation systems to gather insight and derive patterns from unstructured data

Have what it takes to be a data scientist? To apply for a free slot in this world class data science course, applicants must go to https://explore-datascience.net/ and undertake an aptitude test to qualify for selection.  The scholarship application window is open until June 6.