Cloudera sees good traction with CAP programme

  • 7 universities join CAP programme in Malaysia to develop new generation of Hadoop-aware IT professionals
  • Industry involvement through the Cloudera Big Analytics Skills Enablement (BASE) initiative
 Cloudera sees good traction with CAP programme

CLOUDERA, a data management and analytics solutions provider, is encouraged to see its Cloudera Academic Partnership (CAP) programme garnering a good response.
 
Since the launch about six months ago, the company has managed to attract seven universities in Malaysia to sign up for the CAP programme.
 
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) was the first university in Malaysia to join the CAP programme.
 
The other universities include, Multimedia University (MMU), Sunway University, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
 
“We hope to sign up 10 universities by the end of this year,” said Cloudera senior director, Asia Pacific Daniel Ng.
 
“But, we are not stopping at 10. Our plan is to get as many universities as possible to sign up for the programme.”
 
The demand for big data professionals in Malaysia is set to increase significantly, with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) announcing a target of 2,000 data scientist and 16,000 data professionals by the year 2020. 
 
However, the general awareness of the benefits of extracting value from data is still a challenge for many in the Asia Pacific region.
 
At the same time, there is a lack of professionals with the right data skillsets in the region although an increasing number of organisations across all verticals are using Hadoop to extract value from big data.
 
This is where the CAP programme comes in. It partners with education institution to provide an industry standard Hadoop curriculum that schools can incorporate in their courses.
 
According to Ng, the goal of the CAP programme is to develop a new generation of Hadoop-aware IT professionals who will be able to fill the skills gap.
 
Over 100 leading tertiary educational institutions from more than 17 countries have since joined the programme, and out of these, 20% are based in Asia.
 
“The curriculum itself is free and the rates for the teacher training sessions are discounted.
 
“However, in July 2016, we, together with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation and Iverson Associates, announced that we are providing free training to lecturers who are focusing on the Apache Hadoop curriculum at tertiary institutions in Malaysia, under CAP.
 
“The free training has been made available to the first 10 universities in Malaysia (at two lecturers per university) that sign up for the CAP programme with Cloudera,” he said.
 
The collaboration is a joint commitment between our organisations to nurture the next generation of data professionals in Malaysia.
 
“In general, the CAP programme is built to offer students access to a free, advanced Apache Hadoop curriculum as well as the training, and tools to prepare them for careers in big data. We also offer discounts on fees to all Cloudera Certification examinations.
 
“With the free training mentioned, these institutions will be able to provide quality delivery of the industry-standard Hadoop curriculum to students.
 
“Teaching staff also qualify for deep discounts on Cloudera University professional training delivered by Cloudera's team of expert Hadoop instructors. They will also benefit from up-to-date classroom tools, instructor forums, dedicated programme support, and the world's largest Hadoop knowledge base,” he said.
 
When asked why the CAP programme has yet to attract 10 universities after six months, Ng stressed that it wasn’t about the lack of awareness, but instead, it was more about the legal process.
 
“The agreements are currently going through all the parties’ legal approvals, which does take time to align on everything,” Ng explained.
 
Going beyond academia
 Cloudera sees good traction with CAP programmeWhile the involvement of academia is important, there is also a need for relevance and practical experience, and this is where the Cloudera Big Analytics Skills Enablement (BASE) comes in.
 
BASE pulls industry players and academic institutions in Malaysia together, with the aim of equipping more people with necessary skills in the areas of big data and analytics.
 
The initiative also encompasses elements whereby trained data professionals will be matched to opportunities across sectors where their skills are required.
 
“We have on board, businesses like Intel, Dell, Red Hat, Microsoft, SAS Malaysia, and Fusionex that have already stepped forward to join the BASE Initiative in Malaysia. They are committed to playing a role in this collaborative ecosystem.
 
“Academic institutions like UTAR have also joined us to provide training in data skills. Cloudera has also garnered support from Ambition Asia to match data professionals who have completed their training to the right job vacancies,” said Ng (pic right).
 
“This open source ecosystem is targeted to not just bring value to Cloudera's customers and partners, but to enable nations to move forward and ride on the wave of digital transformation,” said Ng.
 
Over the next few years, Ng hopes that the industry is able to produce a steady flow of skilled big data professionals.
 
“We see this as an opportunity for us to play a long-term, catalyst role to bring various bodies into a collaborative effort, much like the open source community did when Hadoop was created.
 
“This collaborative innovation will help us create a sustainable engine that will churn out new, data-enabled talent into the market. They will be able to leverage on the tools available to them, and actualise data for businesses and the community.
 
“We are committed to this, and are in the works to launch this in more markets beyond China, Malaysia, and Singapore,” Ng concluded.

Related Stories:
 
Utar joins Cloudera big data academic programme
 
A life in data, a handbook for data scientists
 
MDEC's 2020 vision to make Malaysia a regional BDA hub
 
 
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