To address the growing market demand for analytics-savvy graduates, IBM is working with universities around the world to bring advanced analytics training directly into the classroom.

The company is expanding its Academic Initiative for business analytics with new programs in India, China, Ireland and Scotland, helping students keep pace with today's competitive job market by gaining skills in this fast-growing field of technology.

In India, IBM is working with faculty members from 500 universities to help more than 30,000 students develop skills in predictive analytics. As part of the program, IBM will conduct a series of training programs with business school faculty concentrating on predictive and business analytics, in 15 major cities throughout the country. The faculty members will complete a certification process in analytics at the end of the program.

Once certified they will begin to teach students about how analytics can be applied to their topic of study. The learning will involve access to predictive analytics technology and will focus on how to act on the results the analytics technology uncovers.

“I have been using IBM predictive analytics technology in a number of programs at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta,” said Sahadeb Sarkar, Professor, Operations Management Group, IIM Calcutta. “I hope this initiative will help teachers in universities to learn and include analytics in existing courses and design new curriculum that will helps students gain a top-notch education to meet the demands of today’s businesses and government organizations.”

Everyday people create the equivalent of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data from sensors, mobile devices, online transactions, and social networks; so much that 90 percent of the world's data has been generated in the past two years. This amounts to more data than organizations can effectively use without applying analytics. The new programs are providing students and faculty members, regardless of their course of study, with access to the latest software capabilities and thinking on how advanced analytics can be applied to tackle complex business and societal challenges.

According to the 2010 IBM Institute for Business Value and MIT Sloan Management Review study of nearly 3,000 executives worldwide, the biggest challenge is the lack of understanding in how to use analytics to gain insights that can improve business outcomes. In response to market demand, universities are incorporating analytics curricula and courseware into a variety of degree programs to educate college students in this growing field.