A survey of data scientists in South Africa

Abstract

Academic programmes at South African Higher Education Institutions have predominantly educated students in managing and storing data using relational database technology. However, this is no longer sufficient. South Africa as a country will need to educate more students to manage and process structured, semi-structured and unstructured data. The main purpose of this study was to examine the status of data scientists, a role typically associated with managing these new data sets, in South Africa. The study examined the skills, knowledge and qualifications these data scientists require to do their daily tasks, and offers suggestions that ought to be considered when designing a curriculum for an academic programme in data science.