In 2012, when we set out to setup our consulting firm, the problem statement was pretty much "the talent crunch" in BI/Data Science space and recruiters' inability to reach out to "right" kind of people and offer them the jobs which is just "right".

Circa 2014 , it is still the same old problem and no big solution, yes no "big" solution. Though we helped many companies in this space and they are happy with us, the basic problem is not that industry is not able to match the right people to the right job, it is just the symptom; basic problem is something else.


The Education Side

The problem lies within the system of education which produces millions of "clueless" students every year. Why did I say "clueless" ? Big word, right? Yes, let's be honest - the education system (at least in India) is at least 10 years behind the industry it caters to as far as professional courses are concerned (specially in Computer Science).

So one should not feel shocked or distressed if they see languages like COBOL in a post graduate university degree course. While there is no harm in learning COBOL but as the matter of fact, there is no need to learn this mainframe language; as there are no new applications coming up on mainframe.

In short, educational institutes does not cater to the latest skill demands from the Industry while they have the money, manpower and mandate to invest in education and professional courses.


The Organization Side

The other side of the coin is that even companies who operate in these domains do not upgrade their employees on these skills, why ? They have the best intentions and mandate but they might not have the resources, money and time to do so.

Let me share my personal experience. When we were taking freshers for BI roles, there was an immediate need to train them. My boss was kind enough to grant a good budget for it, however when we invited training proposals from numerous vendors, there appeared to be huge gap of what we wanted and what was offered by them. Vendors were more interested in teaching tools but that was not going to work out as we already had an internal tool training team in place. We needed something more. We needed our fresh employees to be excellent in data manipulation by having an extraordinary knowledge on SQL and be good enough to understand the nitty gritty of BI. Finally we decided to form an internal training team for this.


The Problem

When we refer ten people for a hiring position, nine gets rejected and nobody tell rejected candidates the reason for it. Hiring managers think that this might be heart breaking to learn about one's own shortcomings. But they all give us the same feedback - lack of advance skills, experience and knowledge and lack of an understanding of the industry in which these candidates operate.


The Solution

After multiple brainstorming sessions, one thing came up on top. There is no standard set of professional courses specific to Business Intelligence and Data Science industry. While there is recently too much hype on Big Data, the other important aspects like Data modeling, Analytics, SQL etc. are completely missed out.

There is a need to create a course which not only encapsulates everything under BI but also helps learners transition from a mere Report developer or ETL developer to having Architecture & Design knowledge. And then let them go on and have knowledge on Analytics, Big Data and other advanced data related technologies.

Born the BIWHIZ, which tries to fill the gap and become a perfect launch pad for beginning and advanced learners.


So why BIWHIZ is different, what's the big deal?

We are trying to streamline the whole business of Data Science education with a unique approach to it. Some of the highlights are:


Research

Before setting out, we promised ourselves one thing. We will not rely on copy paste jobs; we will go out, do the research and find out the best available people, knowledge, practices, experiences. Build the courses around them and then go back to Industry and find out if this fits to their requirements.

A Course is good only when it is relevant and imparts latest technologies and practices.


Holistic Approach

We adhere to a Holistic approach where we see Data Science and Business Intelligence as a single unit and consider the various technologies and tools as parts of big picture.

We make learners aware about all related technologies and then they can choose to become an expert in a specific area. We encourage them to see Data science as a whole and not in parts.


Commitment to Data Science

We are committed to research, study and teaching of Data Science, Business Intelligence and related areas. This comes from pure passion. We do not want to teach all available technologies and do bad job in all of them. We would rather stick to our passion and provide the best available trainings and resources to learn and succeed in these areas.


Relevant Experience

People involved in the Research and Design of these courses have relevant industry experiences. There are people who are working in this industry for more than a decade.

We know that you want to hear from people who have ground level experiences, not from people who have only bookish knowledge.


Market Knowledge

We have the Market Knowledge and we are well networked with Industry veterans and BI companies. We are closely working with these companies to identify and fulfill their needs.

We know what works and what does not work in the market.


Learning is Fun at BIWHIZ

No, we don't bore you till death. Learning is based on real life instances and hence it is more engaging and more fun.

Trainers do not read out from books, they share their personal stories with you like how they built the telecom datawarehouse sitting with the client or how they could fix that big reporting issue or how they sent support mail to the wrong person and then accidently made a new friend.



--BIWHIZ