Decision Sciences Seminar Series: Dr. Jason Triche, University of Montana

Dr. Triche will present his paper, Aligning BI & Analytics Undergraduate Programs with Industry Demand Using the Labor Market Alignment Framework. For more information, review the abstract below.

Title: Aligning BI & Analytics Undergraduate Programs with Industry Demand Using the Labor Market Alignment Framework

Abstract: The rapid growth of business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) in industry is paralleled by the rapid growth of BI&A programs in higher education. Over 130 business analytical academic programs have been launched in the past decade. Given this explosive growth, it is imperative that BI&A curricula continues to adapt to BI&A industry demands. In this research, we seek to understand the alignment between the skills required in the BI&A labor market and the skills taught in BI&A undergraduate programs across the U.S. Using the labor market alignment framework and previous work in the fields of educational curricula and BI&A, we develop a new framework to study this alignment. Using text analysis, we examine over 2,900 job posts from 2018-2019 and identify a common set of skills that are frequently required across different business analytics job positions. Further, we review undergraduate business analytics/data science curricula at 29 universities across the U.S. Our results show that companies expect a balanced set of soft and technical skills for entry level BI&A job positions. In terms of the gap between the academic curriculum and skills in demand, Python, Microsoft’s Excel, communication and collaboration skills are underdeveloped in most academic curricula. This study can help universities better align their curricula with the industry demand.

Zoom link will be issued upon registration.