Interest in data science education on the rise: Imarticus Learning

India's data science education market is estimated to grow from $204.23 million in 2023 to $1.391 billion by 2028

With every major corporation requiring a dedicated team of data analysts, Imarticus Learning, an edtech company, has also noted a rising interest in data science education in the country. According to the Imarticus Learning and Analytics Insights Data Science Report 2023, the global data science education market is projected to reach $378 billion by 2030, with India's market estimated to grow from $204.23 million in 2023 to $1.391 billion by 2028.

Karthik C, the VP and head of data science at Imarticus Learning, Mumbai, highlighted that the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector leads in hiring data science professionals, followed by e-commerce/internet and energy/utilities, constituting over 60 per cent of all data science jobs.

Other actively hiring sectors include retail, pharma, healthcare, media, entertainment, automobiles, and telecom. The 2022 Analytics India report identifies business analysts as the most in-demand role, followed by data engineers, data scientists, data analysts, and deep learning professionals.

Looking ahead, Karthik C stated, "The future would increasingly be driven by data, and the opportunity to harness insights from data science is limitless. The increasing presence of multinational corporations in India, which are enhancing productivity through tooling, automation, simulation, prediction, and optimisation is fuelling job growth in the sector. The essential skills required to excel in data science include programming, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data visualisation."

Imartis Learning also traces the evolution of data science back to the internet's rise, outlining its journey from data storage and transactional decision-making 25 years ago to descriptive analytics, business intelligence, diagnostic analytics, predictive analytics, and eventually prescriptive analytics. Data science now involves semantics, focusing on understanding social context and the meaning of data.

Nikhil Barshikar, the founder and CEO of Imarticus Learning, notes the transformative impact of generative artificial intelligence in the last two years. Data science education industry is incorporating newer technologies like Large Language Models (LLMs) and GenAI into their curriculums.

Barshikar states, "These are now being used in text, audio, images, and videos too. The transition now is from numeric data to art, from solving business problems to helping people in day-to-day life. Large number of startups are capitalising on this trend."