Lanka BPO Academy’s School of Business and Technology and La Trobe University to launch new MSc of Business Analytics
View(s):The Lanka BPO Academy’s School of Business and Technology (LSBT), and the La Trobe Business School, Australia, recently conducted a symposium to engage with the Sri Lankan business community and academics. The symposium was part of the on-going preparation for the launch of La Trobe University’s new Master of Business Analytics, which will begin its first intake in 2016. The new degree programme has been designed to help professionals learn and adapt to the way in which digital technology is continuously transforming every aspect of the business world, the academy said in a media release.
The need for Analytics professionals continues to grow rapidly across the world. Data is the crude oil of the 21st century and companies like Facebook and Google are refining the oil (data) they have into high value insights through analytics. The success of these companies points to an important new business paradigm. To be successful or to even survive today, companies must make sense of the data they have (and don’t have), the release said.
In response to these developments around the world, La Trobe University in partnership with the Lanka BPO Academy, will begin offering the Master of Business Analytics in Australia from 2016 onwards. The course is designed with input from big data academics, industry partners and experienced practitioners. It will largely have a practical focus and is well-suited for professionals seeking to build their Analytics skills or for students who want to move into this industry. Lanka BPO Academy’s School of Business and Technology (LSBT) will support this initiative through a number of executive training programmes right here in Sri Lankan.
“La Trobe University’s constant endeavour to engage with key countries in our region and to keep creating enhanced opportunities for students has brought us to Sri Lanka this year. Our new Master of Business Analytics should help students from Sri Lanka benefit from the cutting edge expertise within our Business School,” said Professor Paul Mather, Head of La Trobe Business School.
“The business analytics team at La Trobe is made up of a group of big data experts with a strong track record in machine learning, data mining, text analytics as well as many years of industry experience. The innovative research by the team has been adopted internationally and new technology and tools applied in a wide range of domains including banking and insurance, healthcare, utilities and infrastructure, defense and national security and social sciences.” said Professor Damminda Alahakoon, Leader of the La Trobe Business According to Jeevan Gnanam, CEO/Director Orion City and Director of LBA School of Business and Technology, ”Big data will soon be the ultimate tool for a business to gain a competitive edge. It will change the way a company competes and operates. This is a rapidly evolving field, there is a vast demand for this technical capacity, and our core drive is to create a niche and support the industry requirement”.
The release said that in Asia, the Singapore government has announced a national big data strategy that will see a sharp rise in hiring of big data and Analytics professionals over the next five years. In the United States, it is predicted that there will be a shortage of between 140,000 – 190,000 highly skilled Analytics professionals and 1.5 million managers by 2018 who are skilled in the use of analytics for their job function.