The State of Illinois has announced an exciting partnership with the IoT Talent Consortium to deliver an education curricula specifically designed to enhance Illinois' goal of transforming into a 'smart state' by utilizing advanced technologies in order to deliver better services more efficiently. The new collaboration will offer an affordable, state-of-the-art option for individuals with a desire to work in the IT industry. It is hoped that the new educational initiative will provide the perfect mechanism to ensure a pipeline of precocious talent in Illinois.
Emerging technologies such as data analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) are empowering governments globally to create new constituent experiences, enabling a workforce innovation that will subsequently transform how they deliver services to those who live, work and play within their communities.
The Internet of Things connects people, processes, data and things which presents, a huge opportunity for government to utilize and harness this data to improve education, transportation, healthcare, safety and other critical services within the state. However, analysts have predicted that by 2018 -there will be a shortage of 1.5m people with the necessary skillset required to analyze big data.
The State of Illinois and the IoT Talent Consortium will provide a prescriptive curriculum for data science skills which is based on the professional program designed by Microsoft for data scientists – which in turn is followed by cybersecurity specialists and others in the future, to help the state meet its needs. This partnership brings powerful reskilling and comprehensive technical education in digitization to the table for Illinois learners and businesses.
Leslie Munger, deputy governor of Illinois said:"Illinois' partnership with the IoT Talent Consortium supports our commitment to building and growing a strong digital economy. These courses will help train our workforce to prepare them for jobs of the future and bring jobs back to Illinois."
Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, president, IoT Talent Consortium, vice president and general manager, Cisco Services said: "With the rise of smart states there is a rising expectation of how state services will be delivered. Fortunately, the increase in digitized infrastructure, supported by IoT technology, is providing new ways to deliver services and improve quality of life. However, orchestrating transformative change on a massive scale requires more than just people who know how to install and maintain technology; there's a pressing need for innovation, business savvy, and the ability to analyze and create cross-platform solutions that improve the way we work, live, play and learn. We are thrilled to welcome Illinois into our ecosystem to help share best practices and drive organizational transformation with building talent and skills needed for digitization jobs of the future."