CASE STUDIES

From School Teacher to Data Scientist: Emani Flower’s Transformation Into Data Science

When Emani Flowers embarked on her journey into education, she had no idea that her passion for teaching would eventually propel her toward a career in Data Science.

Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, Emani was drawn to the captivating world of data science when she learned that minority students in her community were underexposed to computer science.

The support and expert training she received helped her finish the part-time Data Science program in six months and land an exciting new opportunity right at the intersection of education and data science.

“I want to attack education in a way data scientists do. I want to uncover the why behind the data, not just the data itself.”

How Alex became a data scientist at Westpac after COVID-19 forced a career change

Father of two Alex Dance was busy running a successful marketing consultancy when COVID-19 hit. With his clients abruptly cutting their marketing budgets Alex was faced with a harsh reality and knew he needed to take action.

Fascinated by data, Alex wanted to remake his career by gaining practical skills in data science, data analytics, machine learning and AI while also leveraging his marketing domain knowledge. So he retrained in Data Science and AI with the Institute of Data and UTS over the course of three months and then landed a role at Westpac as a Data Scientist / Analyst.

Alex was mentored and trained by data science experts and quickly secured his new role in the high growth data industry despite COVID-19.

“Our trainer was a very good analyst, teacher and also already had the soft skills we needed to learn. Every day I looked forward to learning from him. Similarly, in a workplace you work very closely with technical and non-technical people and when they have relevant soft skills, then they are somebody I look forward to working with. I also like working in teams where we all support and encourage each other, which is where having soft skills is important and I think everyone should spend time developing their soft skills if they are looking to work in data.”

How Sarita launched her data science career in 12-weeks

With a background in science and engineering and the determination to accelerate her career, Sarita needed a way to stand out in the job market. She was focused on gaining job-ready skills in data science, analytics and AI. Through our 12-week full time Data Science & AI program, Sarita was mentored and trained by data science experts and quickly landed a new role as a Data Analyst.

“I was initially exposed to the Data Science arena through my research career in Artificial Neural Networks. My paper was successfully published in an International Journal as a result. I am also a PhD graduate in Chemical Engineering from India. However, I realized there was a huge barrier facing international residents when trying to land an interview or get shortlisted for any type of industry role, despite their qualifications. To break into the local market, I needed a course that enabled me to quickly gain new practical skills as I lacked local career experience.”