Episode 1: Building Data Science Capability in Data-Focussed Teams

Data presents incredible opportunities for organisations to create value, but with the current skills and labour shortages that are affecting all businesses, finding and retaining data scientists and other data professionals can be hard. 

In this episode, host Dr Genevieve Hayes is joined by guest Amanda Aitken to discuss a practical way in which organisations can address the skills shortage, gain much needed data skills and increase staff retention – by upskilling their existing staff.

Guest Bio

Amanda Aitken is a fully-qualified actuary who is currently an educator with the Actuaries Institute of Australia. She teaches data analytics and data science to actuaries through the Actuaries Institute’s Data Analytics Application course and is also a member of the Institute’s Data Analytics Practice Committee and Data Analytics Education Faculty.

Talking Points

• The difference between an actuary and a data scientist.
• Why data skills are becoming increasingly important and the benefits to organisations of upskilling their data team.
• What’s involved in upskilling data-focussed staff.
• The importance of considering “soft skills”, such as communication, privacy and ethics, when training data scientists.
• How an organisation can get the most out of their data staff once they have been upskilled.

Links

• Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn
• Data Science Applications Microcredential
• Data Analytics Seminar
• Machines Behaving Badly by Toby Walsh
• How Humans Judge Machines by Cesar Hidalgo
• Download the FREE Data Science Project Discovery Guide
• Connect with Genevieve on LinkedIn
• To find out more about custom data science training from Genevieve Hayes Consulting or to share your thoughts and feedback on the podcast, you can get in touch HERE.
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