CORE Skills has formally launched its ‘Geoscientist to Data Scientist’ pilot programme along with industry collaborations, Roy Hill, Rio Tinto, ATCO Australia and academic partners CSIRO, Curtin University and The University of Western Australia.
The launch, which took place at the the CORE Innovation Hub in Perth’s central business district, is aimed at addressing how resources sector leaders, geoscientists and engineers will contribute to “value creation of industry organisations” through data science, the resources hub said.
The CORE Innovation Hub is Australia’s first co-working, collaboration and innovation hub focused on the resources sector, while CORE Skills has been set up to create “skills pathways, harnessing the immersive culture of entrepreneurship, open innovation, collaboration and speed to market”.
Data sciences is one particular area of focus for the programme. There is an urgent skills shortage on the horizon, according to CORE Skills.
CORE Innovation Hub CEO Tamryn Barker said: “Digital technologies and the resulting flood of data promise to re-order the resources sector as we know it. We must learn what it takes to harness opportunities to overcome known resource sector challenges in the Data Science era, and embrace the disruptive context we are in.”
Dr Sophie Hancock, CORE Skills Catalyst and Pilot Lead, said being able to make informed, rapid decisions in the face of over A$1 trillion ($720 billion) in economic impact due to digital transformation will be the ultimate power for an industry organisation in the next decade.
This is where CORE Skills can help, according to Hancock.
“Together, we are building a talent pool with greater data science literacy. If participants think they grasped the opportunities of applying the tools the first time within the programme, it is going to be an order of magnitude more powerful applying the learning in follow on projects back in their organisations.”
The industry pilot is comprised of two specific course products: a one-day executive education programme aimed at a new type of senior leader needed to successfully steer companies through the digital transition, and a 12-week, one day a week professionals programme to repurpose capability effectively to match evolving skills requirements.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore CEO Chris Salisbury said his company was committed to investing in people and was always looking for new ways to help them along the way.
“This pilot is not only a great example of how we can pioneer innovative learning solutions to provide our people with the opportunity to grow and develop in their roles, but it also could become a model for upskilling our people in a number of fields,” he said.
This is likely to benefit Rio and its first ‘intelligent mine’, Koodaideri, he added.
