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Airbnb Is Running Its Own Internal University To Teach Data Science (techcrunch.com)
In an effort to fill the demand for trained data scientists, Airbnb will be running its own university-style program, complete with a custom course-numbering system. Since traditional online programs like Coursera and Udacity weren't getting the job done because they weren't tailored to Airbnb's internal data and tools, the company "decided to design a bunch of courses of its own around three levels of instruction for different employee needs," reports TechCrunch. From the report: 100-level classes on data-informed decision making have been designed to be applicable to all teams, including human resources and business development. Middle-tier classes on SQL and Superset have enabled some non-technical employees to take on roles as project managers, and more intensive courses on Python and machine learning have helped engineers brush up on necessary skills for projects. Since launching the program in Q3 2016, Airbnb has seen the weekly active users of its internal data science tools rise from 30 to 45 percent. A total of 500 Airbnb employees have taken at least one class -- and Airbnb has yet to expand the program to all 22 of its offices.
imho this is how it should be
An in-house "university" featuring of an in-house catalog of courses, mostly online but maybe with some classroom mixed in. When I was at IBM, the quality of some of the 'courses' I tried was pretty poor, much worse than Coursera. But it's not like Airbnb just invented the idea.
What is 'data science' ?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I'm so proud of my Masters form AirBnB University.
Businesses running their own internal training? Whooda thunk it?
This is precisely what business *should* be doing to have "tailor-made" employees, rather than trying to find the imaginary perfect employee ready to hit the ground running. As is the meme here, for good reason, there's no shortage of IT workers or other knowledge workers. There's simply a lack managerial foresight or actual executive skill to know *how* to implement employee education & training this and *why* this is a good idea for nearly all business.
If having well-educated employees with highly targeted skillsets is important to you, then fund training. Don't rely on universities and outside entities to do it for you. And guess what? Do it well, and you'll have the advantage over businesses who only hire the cookie-cutter educated staff.
Seriously, this seems like a no-brainer to me.
... or apprenticeship, and it used to be the norm.
It drives me crazy when companies whine about being unable to find "qualified" employees.
Instead of continuing to whine about not being able to find the perfect person to hire, they've finally started doing some internal training.
The cozy duopoly of DeVry, Trump-U and Harvard will broken!
(At first I typed dupology. If it was a word it'd be appropriate)
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Such innovation and courage. Thank god humanity has geniuses like this around to show us the foolishness of our primitive ways.
Whiny SJWs complaining that the profs won't refer to them by their preferred pronouns. Then you can call yourself a university.
Wow, the IT world has changed so much that a company investing in training its employees makes the front page of Slashdot.
Kind thoughts do not change the world
... weren't tailored to Airbnb's internal data and tools ...
This is what businesses are meant to do: Find people with aptitude and train them for the job. In this case, airBnB already has data scientists, it's not hiring unknowns, which has lost favour for 3 reasons:
1) Aptitude doesn't mean that one can learn to do the job. A lot of people have to be employed because about half will fail a training program. That's money either lost or difficult to recover from an ex-employee.
2) The business must now protect (or stable) the employee, so all that training doesn't walk out the door and benefit its competition. It's even worse if the business overestimated its staffing needs and has 'spare' employees.
3) Due to the cost of keeping employees, businesses prefer to hire the experience it needs, when it is needed. That means that no-one is ever trained for a job; at least for the many professions that don't enforce internship programs. Instead, employees are imported, meaning the local labour supply remains inexperienced and underemployed.
This is the IT world now. You're thinking of the computing industry which no longer exists.
#Zuck2020
How dare they train people in the US instead of importing some H-1Bs??*
* H-1Bs will still need to be trained but will cost way less.
They're so disturbed by the idea of on-the-job training they don't even realize they're doing it.
Wow! We have courses to train our employees how to use our tools and data! How revolutionary! This is some real 21st century shit!
NEWS AT 11
Just no. Stop calling it that. It isn't.
Just another day in Paradise