IBM and DePaul University recently announced a new program for teaching students predictive analytics (details here). I like the specific focus on a Masters degree in Predictive Analytics and the focus not on PhDs in analytics but on a more practical Masters degree. Companies need a lot more folks who can understand and use advanced analytics than they need PhDs to build new algorithms so this is the right focus. There are other Masters degrees in analytics and data mining (KDNuggets has a great list here) but the focus explicitly on predictive analytics does make this one unique.
Given the interest I see from my clients in analytics, somehow I doubt these graduates will have trouble finding jobs. As Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, says ““I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians and I’m not kidding.”
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