General Assembly DC, a branch of the nationwide network of technical training school, has kept very busy educating area workers eager to learn new technical and entrepreneurial skills. Now the District campus will host General Assembly's first full-time data science course ever offered, in a pilot program created in partnership with Tableau, one of the most prominent companies in the field.
The age of Big Data is only getting bigger, and GA wants to cater to the kind of talent demands its students face. There have been data science classes before at the technological workshop, but it's always been for part-time programs or workshops. The new "Data Science Immersive" program piloting in D.C. and San Francisco, will be the first full-time, 12-week course in data science that GA has offered.
"We have a great foundation built in D.C."
"Data is the best thing anyone can be investing in right now," GA spokesperson Marissa Arnold explained in an email interview with DC Inno. "And we're excited to be able to offer it to students now and roll it out across all 15 of GA's campuses."
Three months of hard work and $14,500 is no small investment, but it is true that data science skills are in high demand. There's a major battle for the best talent, with the financial, government and business worlds fighting to attract people who understand data science. Arnold pointed out that even those GA students who had done data science and analytics courses part-time were still making impressive strides in their careers, particularly in D.C. It is true that there is a long list of impressive data analytics companies in and around the District, and many notable experts in the industry have been lured to move to the area to work for the government or firms with political clients.
"There's a strong data science market in D.C. already," Arnold said. "We have a great foundation built in D.C. and are confident in the pilot program."
The first Data Science Immersive class begins in D.C. on April 11, with the second cohort beginning Aug. 1. Based on the feedback that GA gets on the pilot programs in the District and California, it could become a staple part of GA's course offerings, and a vital one if the deficit in data science talent compared to demand continues to grow.
"We continually evaluate our course offerings and curriculum. Our instructional designers and education product team work with expert practitioners as well as our network of employers to ensure that our curriculum is current and relevant," Arnold said. "We see great demand for our full-time programs - they are transformative experiences, and we look forward to our first cohort of DSI."
