A SCOTTISH digital skills academy has announced the launch of its data analysis course.

CodeClan invites prospective students and employers to join them on this new venture that will accelerate data innovation across Scotland.

The course has been developed in response to the growing demand for data professionals to help propel organisations across Scotland towards economic growth. It offers a unique opportunity for career changers to develop sought-after skills, and for organisations to upskill their existing employees into data-focused roles.

The 14-week course, starting in June, has been modelled on the success of CodeClan’s award-winning and fully-accredited Professional Software Development (PSD) course. Since October 2015, the PSD course has seen over 600 individuals graduate with career changing web and software development skills, and 490 have gone into work within organisations across multiple business sectors. The new course will give its graduates the ability to “lead data-driven decision making and to gain skills that will help turbo charge organisational growth”.

CodeClan’s CEO, Melinda Matthews-Clarkson said: “Data analysis is transforming organisations across Scotland. Whether you work in management, marketing, product development, operations or customer services, data is now fundamental to the success of businesses. We’ve developed this course in response to demand from industry and in collaboration with data science experts including The Data Lab and Effini. It covers all the foundational skills required to work effectively with data across all business sectors.

“Data analysis is in high demand and employers are crying out for talent. We need to up-skill faster in order to respond to the growing demand for skills and the speed at which demand is growing. With the rise in automation, over 46% of jobs in Scotland (1.2 million) are at threat. If we can retrain and upskill people with new data analysis skills to prevent redundancy we have a win-win situation.”

The course is aimed at professionals already working with data who want to improve their skills, employers who want to retrain existing employees and career changers who want to learn a new set of skills.

Gillian Docherty, CEO at The Data Lab added: “Data innovation is becoming a must in all industry sectors. Scotland is recognised

for its strong and cohesive data community; skills and talent development is an important part

of that.”