Beyond Unicorns: Educating, Classifying, and Certifying Business Data Scientists

There is increasing recognition that the data scientist ‘unicorn’—one who can master all the necessary skills of data science required by businesses—exists only rarely, if at all. Successful data science teams in business organizations, then, need to assemble people with a variety of different skills. This is only possible at scale with clear classification and certification of skills. While such certifications and classifications are in their early days, some firms are beginning to create them, and they are beginning to emerge in professional associations as well. Ideally, universities and other education providers and certifiers of data science skills would also employ standard skill classifications to communicate the skills they intend to inculcate.