India’s advanced analytics talent requirements will double to two lakh by 2020, and Great Learning can skill you for it

Data, they say, is the new oil. And India could well be the new Arabia.

With nearly 97,000 vacancies, India is the second-biggest analytics jobs hub after the US, a recent study by skilling platform Great Learning and Analytics India Magazine revealed. The figure is poised to more than double to two lakh by 2020. India now also accounts for one in 10 advanced analytics job openings in the world. If ever there was a gold rush for data scientist jobs, India would be at the heart of it.

Talking about the widening skill-gap in analytics, Hari Krishnan Nair, co-founder of edtech company Great Learning says, "A 45 percent increase in the supply gap in just one year indicates the pace at which businesses are adopting analytics and data-based decision-making. In the last few years, many large players have been forced to acqui-hire talent to keep the wind in their sails."

Adapting to an era of more data-driven decision-making has not always proven to be a simple proposition for people or organisations. Many are struggling to develop talent, business processes, and organisational muscle to capture real value from analytics. This is becoming a matter of urgency, since a prowess in analytics gives companies a competitive edge, and the leaders are chalking up competitive advantages.

Analytics as a career or skill

Compared to the numbers in 2017, 2018 had an optimistic job growth with a 45 percent increase in open job requirements. As BFSI, e-commerce and telecom lead the demand for data science skills in India, there was an overall growth in the number of jobs in analytics and data science ecosystem with India contributing to six percent of open job openings worldwide, a report by Great Learning and Analytics India magazine revealed. Of the 97,000 analytics and data science job positions available in the market, 97 percent of the job openings are on a full-time basis with just three percent of them being part-time or contractual.

As analytics as a discipline becomes more entrenched across domains, especially in India’s IT and financial services sectors, organisations and high-growth startups are on a hiring spree. However, the market continues to be employer-driven and finding the right talent is a growing challenge for organisations and startups. Hiring trends indicate a demand for junior-level talent with around 70 percent of analytics openings for candidates with less than 5 years of experience. 21 percent of the analytics jobs posted were for freshers an increase of 17 percent from last year. 31 percent analytics job openings were for professionals with more than 5 years of work experience. However there was a dip in hiring at mid-stage level from 2017 with a reported 38 percent share of job postings for professionals with 5+ years of experience.

With the emerging tech industry growing at a whirlwind speed, especially in analytics, more and more professionals are expected to segue into this sector. Consequently, the number of jobs in the data science sector is also mushrooming. As companies are diversifying their portfolio and the IT giants are entering into the SaaS and PaaS arena, there is more need for data scientists and analytics-ready professionals in this field.

The need for the right skilling providers

While it’s undeniable that there has been a rapid rise in the number of colleges and institutions offering data science and analytics training, the large gap in the job market has been linked to the lack of institutions that properly prepare candidates to solve real-world problems. And while a steady stream of data scientists and data analysts are being churned out, they have a strong foundation in theory but are found to be lacking in practical skills.

On the other end of the spectrum are employees who are on a path for lifelong learning approach to skills development. As leading institutes respond to the rising demand for analytics skills with tailored programs, skills development programs will play a critical role in updating the analytics capabilities and preparing the workforce for new roles.

Great Learning: bridging the skill gap with top-ranked analytics courses

Great Learning is an ed-tech company that offers programs in career critical competencies such as Analytics, Data Science, ML, AI, Cloud Computing, DevOps, Full-stack Development, Cybersecurity, Digital Business Management, Design Thinking and more. Their programs have helped thousands of professionals across the globe to build competencies in these emerging areas, to secure and grow their careers. Their range of courses address all levels of skills and requirements, from a short course for managers looking to get a basic understanding of analytics to a more comprehensive analytics and data science programme for freshers and early career professionals.

For experienced professionals looking to upskill in analytics

Great Learning’s PG Program in Business Analytics & Business Intelligence is a comprehensive Business Analytics Course that covers the latest analytics tools and techniques along with their business applications. Offered in collaboration with The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin and Great Lakes, India, the course offers a blended learning environment or an online learning environment that causes minimal disruptions to a learner’s work schedule. Sessions are augmented with online webinars, discussions and assignments for continuous and cumulative learning.

For managers looking to get a basic understanding of analytics

Great Learning’s Data Analytics using Excel course is perfect for professionals who want to explore the analytics field but are not sure if they can commit to a longer duration PG program. Spanning just six weeks, the course modules include an Introduction to Analytics, Data Wrangling using Excel, Exploratory Data Analysis using Excel, Statistics with Excel, Data Modeling using Excel, and Data Visualization using Tableau. The topics are covered in a practical approach to enable manager-level professionals to prepare for future business roles using data analytics.

For freshers and early career professionals looking for a career in analytics

Great Learning’s PG Data Science Course has been designed to help candidates jumpstart their careers in Data Science and Machine Learning. This five-month classroom programme is ideal for fresh graduates and early career professionals who are looking at roles like business analysts, data analysts, data engineers, analytics engineers. It equips candidates with relevant data science techniques, tools and technologies and hands-on application through industry case studies.

India’s #1 analytics courses that see 48 percent average salary hikes post-completion

Great Learning’s analytics program has been ranked No.1 in India by AIM for four consecutive years, while The UT Austin McCombs School of Business' MS in Business Analytics is ranked No.2 in the world by QS World University Rankings. The programs are taught by faculty from Great Lakes, UT Austin and practising data scientists and analytics experts, and cover most current analytical tools including Python, R, SAS and Tableau. The capstone projects, in addition to 12 hands-on projects, allow candidates to apply their learning to real industry scenarios and add them to their portfolios as a tangible body of work. Having successfully transitioned over 2,500 alumni to analytics roles, the course typically sees a 48 percent average salary hike post-completion across its participants.

Finally, Great Learning's placement program, GL Excelerate, helps candidates unlock their potential, highlight their skills and connect to the right opportunities for their next job with exclusive recruitment drives, interview preparation workshops and access to curated jobs from over 200 organisations.

Keen on being a part of the great global analytics revolution? Start your analytics upskilling journey here.