How to ... Get up to speed with data science

20 January 2019 - 00:03 By Margaret Harris

Data science is the industry that has resulted from the overlapping of maths, statistics and computer programming. It refers to the use of mathematical algorithms and programming languages to gather, analyse, visualise and predict patterns from huge volumes of data.
Shaun Dippnall, a co-founder of the Explore Data Science Academy, says he believes young people need to learn about data science. "The jobs of the future will look very different to how they look today . Maths, science and, more recently, coding are generally speaking the most valuable skills a job-seeker can have."
He has this advice:
• The world of work has much to offer data scientists, including software development, data analytics, business insights, consulting, information systems, and all manner of engineering roles requiring advanced software knowledge;
• It is not necessary to have excellent maths marks to study data science, but it will help if you have an inclination towards maths and science data; and
• Learning to program can encourage a very pragmatic way of thinking. Someone with a good analytical brain could go far in the data science world with the right skills...

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