Following the success of the first Data-AI Fast Track Programme launched by the Welsh Contact Forum (WCCF), the University of South Wales (USW) will be delivering a second postgraduate qualification , in support of an innovative accelerated programme in latest data science and AI skills and knowledge, to handpicked STEM graduates as part of a new partnership
The Data-AI Fast Track Programme, led by the WCCF and a consortium of leading financial services and technology businesses, is a 10-month intensive fast-track programme, providing accelerated work-based learning and development, combining industry placements and academia.
Graduates will complete the Postgraduate Diploma in Data-AI to enable applied learning to be fed back into their employer work placements across South East Wales. USW successfully tendered to the Welsh Contact Centre Forum Ltd to run the programme.
Starting in January 2022, those on the diploma course will spend 10 months working on several modules which have been designed to focus on the specific needs of employers. The programme is part-funded by the European Social Fund. A second course will start later in 2022.
The modules include data analytics, programming, machine learning, time series analysis and forecasting, text mining and natural language processing, deep learning, professional skills for data, and a data and AI project. The content and learning objectives of these modules has been specifically designed by the course team at USW to reflect the most recent developments and advances in AI, Robotics, and Data Science.
Course Leader Rebecca Peters, who is a Lecturer in Data Science and Mathematics, said: “There was fierce competition to get on this course, with only a handful of places available.
“Following the launch on 10th January, the graduates will kick-start the programme with a four-week intensive bootcamp, which is designed to immediately prepare them to apply their learning on the job. Following this initial bootcamp the graduates will spend a day a week attending lectures and completing the learning required for the taught elements of this course.
“The proposed qualification structure will provide a 10-month Fast Track Data & AI programme which will deliver the fundamental aspects of understanding, interpreting, and managing data.
“The focus is for the students to applying learning from day one in their employer environments, cementing and building upon knowledge and skills, while at the same time delivering value to employers.”
Rebecca added that the aim of this course is to provide the students with the skills, knowledge, and techniques to get insight from data, and support businesses in using it in the real world and in real time.
“Most things we do in in today’s life leads to the creation of new data, whether, for example, it’s going on our phones, or shopping and purchasing something with our credit cards,” Rebecca said.
“Businesses are keen to utilise this data to help them make more informed decisions and better decisions around such things as how they operate and how their customers act.
“The purpose of a data scientist is to analyse that data and helps the businesses to gain insight from it and make those business-related decisions.”
