Mumbai: SAS India, the leader in business analytics software and services, announced its association with Goa Institute of Management (GIM) for a two-year full time residential post-graduate management programme in Big Data Analytics (PGDM BDA). It is the first post-graduate management programme in the country focused on the exciting field of Big Data. The programme is designed to address the new paradigm of fact-based decision making associated with the advent of Big Data.
The main objective of this programme is to prepare future ready managers who are well versed with Big Data and Analytics. The program will cover the entire gamut of Big Data ecosystem and will impart hands-on training to students in data visualization, advanced analytics, machine learning, along with communication skills required by a business manager.
“Today, every organization requires analytics for business decisions and the need will only amplify in future. While there are limitless opportunities for the students commencing their career in this field, there is an acute shortage of skilled talent. SAS along with GIM is looking to address this very skill gap that exists today. The newly launched program in association with GIM is an effort to offer a great platform for students to enhance their skills, provide hands-on experience and gain a competitive edge in the industry,” Bhuvan Nijhawan, Director, Education, SAS Asia Pacific.
Director, Goa Institute of Management, Mr. Ajit Parulekar said, “The course is designed with a vision to produce what we called data-fluent, future-ready managers who would have complete business perspective as well as hands-on experience in solving business problems with big data tools and technologies. The course is structured in a manner so as to fully prepare students to take up front-line managerial jobs in data-intensive companies.”
“A management program in big data analytics is a credential which will be a strong differentiator for jobs in Indian employment landscape. The way we work is rapidly changing & digital – including big data, analytics and artificial intelligence is the future. Students opting to enroll for this program will definitely have the edge as they would be well prepared for the jobs of tomorrow,” said Kunal Aman, Head of Marketing at SAS India.
“Generally, Analytics MBA students are taken as quasi data scientists with some idea of management to be trained by companies in their line of business and are relegated to staff functions in companies. We wanted to break this trend by preparing our students to be front-line managers fully equipped for companies and decide how the data would be used, for what purpose and with what technologies”, added Prof. Anand Teltumbde, Head of the BDA Programme.
The students will be admitted on the basis of their CAT/GMAT/CMAT score and aptitude in Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning. The course is divided into six terms. In the first term, the students are provided a perspective of management along with an introduction to Analytics. The next two terms will focus on learning languages like SAS, R, Python and various emerging technologies all through problem solving with live data sets in a Data Lab. The students shall thus be readied to take up industry assignments in a company during their summer internship.
The course is heavily premised on industry interface for which a novel concept of “Industry Associate” is implemented. Select companies/organizations which have been using analytics are associated with the programme as Industry associates. Their analytics experts will constantly interact with students in formal and informal ways and help ensure the programme remains well tuned with industry needs.
The following year will include their area of specialization from amongst three elective buckets: 1. Banking, Finance and Insurance; 2. Marketing and ecommerce; and 3. Public Systems. During these two terms, they would be imparted in-depth management knowledge in that area along with relevant analytics course. With this academic preparation, the students would be treated as industry-ready and required to do an internship on an industry project in one of the associate companies for the last term. Only after successful completion of it, they would earn their diplomas.
