Creating Guidelines to Supplement the Data Analytics Program in Community College toward Preparation of STEM and HPC Careers

Volume 15, Issue 2 (November 2024), pp. 2–4

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@article{jocse-15-2-1,
  author={Elizabeth Bautista and Nitin Sukhija},
  title={Creating Guidelines to Supplement the Data Analytics Program in Community College toward Preparation of STEM and HPC Careers},
  journal={The Journal of Computational Science Education},
  year=2024,
  month=nov,
  volume=15,
  issue=2,
  pages={2--4},
  doi={https://doi.org/10.22369/issn.2153-4136/15/2/1}
}

Data science continues to create opportunities in the technology and HPC industry resulting from growing data sets, the need for more insights, the necessity of automation, the evolving roles and changes in job descriptions as those positions are needed and the shortage in the workforce with this talent. However, despite the growing demand, not enough students are learning the basic skills or being able to be given opportunities for hands-on work. In the Northern California Community College system, many of the students return to school after having graduated with a bachelor's degree or find the need to gain new skills to enhance their resume or to change careers altogether. Unfortunately, in the community colleges, there are not enough classes or instructors who are trained in data science to teach the class. In the four-year university, the program is usually waitlisted for transfer students from the community college. This paper is a continuation of the work after the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) partnered with Laney College to start a Data Analytics program. After two years, they are challenged with not enough instructors to the number of students that are interested in the program. Further, approximately 40% of students are struggling to continue the rigorous material they need to learn. These students may have to work to support families and are unable to put in the 20-40 hours of work to earn a living as well as the 20-40 hours of study and homework that the program requires. Therefore, Laney partnered with Codefinity, an online education program that has a track for Python Data Analysis and Visualization.