One of the main barriers preventing the full exploitation of the Data Science and IoT potential is the skills gap observed in both domains. According to the latest estimates, the number of data professionals in the EU reached €76 million in 2019 (3.6% of the total workforce), but there is still an imbalance between the demand and the supply of data skills in Europe. Moreover, 33% of enterprises declare that there is a major skills gap in IoT readiness. The skills gap together with the continuous evolution of Data Science and IoT technologies and their application in many sectors make the skills required by IT professionals sophisticated and the need to be constantly updated imperative.SEnDIng was a 3-year Sector Skills Alliance Erasmus+ project that ran during the period November 2017 – January 2021. The project consortium consisted of 12 partners coming from 4 European countries (Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Ireland): two Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), two Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers, five IT SMEs, two Associations of IT companies and professionals and one Certification Body. The SEnDIng project addressed the skills gap at the Data Science and IoT domains, by providing IT professionals with technical knowledge and skills together with transversal skills and competences that are relevant to the needs of the labour market, are transferable, and are recognized among European countries.The main project outputs are:(a) 2 VET programs for Data Science and IoT that are based on multi-disciplinary and learning-outcomes oriented curricula and combine technical knowledge and skills with transversal skills and competences,(b) 2 reference models of knowledge, skills, and competences for Data Scientists and IoT professionals in accordance with well-known European frameworks, such as the e-Competence Framework (e-CF) and the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations (ESCO),(c) +250 learning resources for Data Science, IoT, and for building transversal skills available for downloading as OERs,(d) a MOOC with 6 Data Science online courses (DS-EM1: Introduction to Data Science, DS-EM2: Applied Machine Learning, DS-EM3: Python for Data Science, DS-EM4: Storing and Retrieving Data, DS-EM5: Statistics for Data Science and DS-EM6: Data Visualization), 6 IoT online courses (IoT-EM1: Introduction to IoT, IoT-EM2: Architectural Design and Applications in IoT, IoT-EM3: IoT Communication Technologies, IoT-EM4: IoT Security and Privacy, IoT-EM5: IoT Devices and IoT-EM6: IoT Business Value) and 1 online course for building transversal skills running at http://mooc.sending-project.eu/ and(e) 3 exploitation toolkits for VET providers, SMEs, and IT professionals.The 2 VET programs were tested with IT professionals and companies from Greece, Bulgaria, and Palestine in 3 phases: (a) 103 hours of Data Science or IoT self-paced online courses, (b) 20 hours of online synchronous transversal skills training, and (c) 320 hours of work-based learning. At the end of the training, all those who met the defined criteria participated in formal exams leading to the SEnDIng Data Science and IoT certification.Various dissemination activities took place during the project lifetime, including publications of papers in international conferences, 2 national workshops (in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Athens, Greece), and 1 online final conference. During these events, the project partners presented the project and its main results to relevant stakeholders (e.g. VET providers, HEIs, SMEs, IT professionals) and had fruitful discussions regarding the exploitation and sustainability of project outputs.
The skills gap together with the continuous evolution of Data Science and IoT technologies and their application at many sectors make the skills required by IT professionals sophisticated and the need to be constantly updated imperative. SEnDIng addresses the Data Science and IoT skills gap, by providing IT professionals with technical knowledge and skills together with transversal skills and competences that meet the industry needs are transferable and are recognized among EU countries.
One of the main barriers preventing the full exploitation of the Data Science and IoT potential, is the skills gap observed at both domains. According to the latest estimates, the number of data professionals in the EU reached €76 million in 2019 (3.6% of the total workforce), but there is still an imbalance between the demand and the supply of data skills in Europe. Moreover, 33% of enterprises declare that there is a major skills gap in IoT readiness.
<< Background >> One of the main barriers preventing the full exploitation of the Data Science and IoT potential, is the skills gap observed at both domains. According to the latest estimates, the number of data professionals in the EU reached €76 million in 2019 (3.6% of the total workforce), but there is still an imbalance between the demand and the supply of data skills in Europe. Moreover, 33% of enterprises declare that there is a major skills gap in IoT readiness. << Objectives >> The skills gap together with the continuous evolution of Data Science and IoT technologies and their application at many sectors make the skills required by IT professionals sophisticated and the need to be constantly updated imperative. SEnDIng addresses the Data Science and IoT skills gap, by providing IT professionals with technical knowledge and skills together with transversal skills and competences that meet the industry needs are transferable and are recognized among EU countries. << Implementation >> The main outputs of the project are: (a) 2 VET programs for Data Science and IoT that are based on multi-disciplinary and learning-outcomes oriented curricula , (b) 2 reference models of knowledge, skills and competences for Data Scientists and IoT professionals in accordance with well-known European frameworks, such as the e-CF and ESCO (c) a MOOC for Data Science, IoT and transversal skills and (d) 3 exploitation toolkits. The training material is available for downloading in the form of OERs. << Results >> The 2 VET programs have been tested with IT professionals and companies from Greece, Bulgaria and Palestine in 3 phases: (a) 103 hours of Data Science or IoT asynchronous online courses, (b) 20 hours of online synchronous transversal skills training and 320 hours of work-based learning. At the end of the training all those who met the defined criteria participated in exams leading to SEnDIng Data Science and IoT certification. Moreover, 2 national workshops and 1 final conference were organized.