Data science developed as a tool for streamlining education
The US National Center for Opportunity Engineering & Analysis is launching a major higher education data-processing project which aims to link US academic programmes with emerging workforce requirements. Two partners in the project, The University of Chicago and the San Diego Supercomputing Center, are applying computation and data science tools to information on job experience, education and employment, with the aim of determining what skills are need from graduates in the current marketplace and to predict future workforce needs.

Dive Brief:

EdSurge offers a glimpse into a massive new higher education data processing project, the National Center for Opportunity Engineering & Analysis, which will seek to pair the nation's academic programs with its emerging workforce needs.

The University of Chicago and the San Diego Supercomputing Center are two of the institutional partners helping to develop a digital space where course offerings are mashed up with job announcements to offer a view of what skills are needed from graduates in today's marketplace and predict the workforce needs of the near future.

Officials say short-term challenges include cultivating course data from campuses, specifically community colleges, and funding for the project.

Dive Insight:

There are additional elements that must be considered for colleges to think about offering full reporting buy-in. First, course offerings are not necessarily sound predictors of courses being taken by students. Second, aggregating job data holistically doesn't offer a view of where the jobs actually are, which plays a major role in what colleges should consider offering and developing.

Individual campuses have the capacity to mine employment data from federal and state databases, and to consider how to construct academic offerings around those needs. A national center is a great idea, but could be a bit ahead of its time in execution and utility.