Grant to help UA boost data science workforce
by April 15, 2025 11:16 am 484 views
Karl Schubert, the managing director of the University of Arkansas Data Science Program
The Arkansas Department of Higher Education awarded $750,000 to the University of Arkansas to help increase the number of data science certificates and degrees throughout the state.
Karl Schubert, managing director of the University of Arkansas Data Science Program, will be the principal investigator on a new program called HIRED. Schubert also leads the Data Science Literacy, Education and Workforce Development advisory group.
The state is pushing to invest more in workforce training to produce more skilled data science professionals to meet job growth expectations. Data scientists in Arkansas can earn from $80,000 to $120,000 a year.
The two-year grant has two main goals. One is to expand the Arkansas Data Science Ecosystem by adding more two-year colleges to the program. The other is to create stackable certificates that allow students and current workers to upskill without requiring a college degree. Stackable certificates will be developed from existing online courses, broken into smaller stand-alone modules taken in sequence for workforce training.
Ultimately, the goal is to have more than 1,000 students enrolled in courses around the state.