Inspired by a fresh appreciation of what SAS does with data, I ventured last week into the annual SAS Programming for High School class here at headquarters. In the corporate classroom, I found a dozen educators from four states sacrificing five days of summer vacation. Their mission: to equip themselves to train a new generation of SAS users.
Wait a minute. What kind of person gives up a whole week of vacation to learn a new skill?
Somebody who cares deeply about imparting a valuable lifelong skill, that’s who. And these teachers are key to SAS CEO Jim Goodnight’s philanthropic goal of getting young people to love learning.
Teachers willing to invest five nine-hour days in August (at no charge, except for travel and accommodations) learn how SAS business analytics turns mountains of data into insights that lead to smart decisions. They end the week with almost everything they need to teach SAS programming, which in turn gives students the foundation for a successful, recession-proof career.
Forty teachers have been trained to date. The success stories are phenomenal.
For example, at Phillip O. Berry Academy in Charlotte, N.C., students used SAS to research a plan to institute satellite bus stops. They organized a survey to see how students would be affected by the change, analyzed the results in SAS and delivered a presentation to the school board.
Carl Henriksen, who teaches AP statistics and calculus at Eastside High School in Gainesville, Fla., spent last week receiving the fast-paced, animated instruction of SAS’ Elizabeth Ceranowski. He hopes to begin teaching SAS in a year to all his school’s grade levels. “This course will let them get their hands dirty with real data,” he said. “They’ll learn how data is handled in the real world. We're giving them a skill that they can apply in any field they decide to go into.”
There’s high demand for people with a SAS skill set, even during tough economic times. For proof, look no further than North Carolina State University’s Institute for Advanced Analytics (IAA), which offers a master’s degree in analytics.
The IAA’s class of 2011 was the most sought-after group of graduates since the program’s 2007 inception. According to its website: “Thirty-nine MSA students seeking employment logged a record-breaking 532 initial job interviews with 86 employers during the 90-day placement period preceding graduation—or 14 interviews per student—an increase of 40-percent over last year. Ninety-seven percent of the Class of 2011 had one or more offers of employment, and 92-percent had accepted their new positions by graduation.” Average base salary offer: $81,500.
Plenty of seats in the 2012 class!
Contact us to book yours:
800-333-7660
