CALGARY — If big data is the future of business, the University of Calgary wants to give some workers a window into that edge.

Starting this fall, the computer science department will be offering certificate and diploma programs in data science and analytics.

Christian Jacob, head of the computer science department at the U of C, said they’ve seen great demand for a similar program at the University of British Columbia.

He said just about every business is gathering more data and often they don’t know how to unlock the valuable information within.

“You have data in your company and you want to make better decisions based on data,” said Jacob. “How do you share it? There’s lots of ways that you need to go through this data and visualize it. How are these data sets being presented, from a user perspective?”

He said the program will help people from all sorts of businesses learn how to work with and manipulate data.

Part of the program will focus on free, open-source software that people can use to get the job done.

The program is designed for mid-career professionals.

“Anybody who can see that data plays a big role in their decision-making and their careers,” said Jacob. “We could imagine engineers downtown who work in a specific area and now really want to make more informed decisions about their daily task.”

He said it might be well-suited for someone working in oil and gas who is looking to pivot into the tech sector.

The program will begin in September and the university is now accepting applications.

The certificate program will take four months, with participants completing four courses.

Students can choose to continue on into the winter semester with an additional four courses if they want to achieve the program diploma.

Jacob said they’ll be partnering with the Haskayne School of Business and the Cumming School of Medicine on the diploma program to offer specializations in business and medical data.

Juan Valdes, a recruitment consultant in Edmonton, knows the value of boosting your resume by going back to school.

He said he’s now taking an evening course at the University of Alberta in business analysis.

“I work with an IT firm,” said Valdes. “A lot of people I meet with are in data analytics, data science, machine learning — that sort of space. Everything has to do with business analysis, too, and what kind of data to gather.”

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He said he’s previously taken informal online courses to boost his skills, but this is the first time he’s done anything more formal.

“I am recruiting in the IT space and I just see such a huge value for the future. I think it’s one of the most on-demand skills ... so I definitely want to gain that knowledge,” he said.