Case study: How La Trobe University sets its data students up for success

La Trobe University has a centre for data analytics and computing cognition in its business school to help students from every background understand and apply analytics in their careers.

Aron O’Cass, dean at the La Trobe Business School spoke to Digital Nation Australia on the course itself and how it is helping grow a new generation of data and analytics professionals.

O’Cass said, “Our philosophy is when the students graduate, we want to make sure that they can have that seamless transition into employability, they do that when they go into industry and the industry is using the latest technology. It makes their life easier and makes the employers' life easier.”

He explained that the university is making sure that the students are equipped to have a smooth transition into the industry.

“As a business, you need to train [students] on the latest software platform,” he explained.

La Trobe has been working with analytics organisation SAS since 2007 to bring this program to life. O’Cass said SAS’s advanced analytics is underpinning the course.

“It gives you the capacity to do things that other platforms don't do as easily. For example, this program is being used in a health project and provides cutting-edge technology.

“This means the outcome in terms of the health outcomes that we can report on and provide input into are much more advanced because this platform allows us to do that.”

O’Cass said they will add a supply chain component to the course in the future.

“We're about to launch a master of project management and we have a master of supply chain. They will be underpinned by the analytics side,” he said.

“If you think about the supply chain problems, part of that is understanding what's going on how can we make it more efficient, where our roadblocks barriers are, etc. The analytics side is key to unlocking efficiency in the supply chain. We've had major problems since COVID.”

O’Cass said supply chain analytics is a growth area for the university.

“We have very highly skilled academics and researchers in supply chain analytics. The university is putting forward a new institute in agriculture and food, and our business analytics people will play a significant role in the supply chain for agricultural supply chains and the same in the health space,” he said.

CERI, the Care Economy Research Institute at La Trobe is underpinned by the business school’s work in analytics in healthcare according to O’Cass.

He said, “It's branching out and is becoming the DNA of a lot of organisations, particularly universities, where every discipline now calls on analytics a lot more because of the rapid growth of data, the access to data, the technology that's coming along now that can be supported in this space.

“It's being driven largely by the advancements in technology and the massive growth of employment in this space,” he added.