Stevens Institute of Technology & Accenture Help Close Talent Gap in Financial Services Analytics

On Nov 12, 2014

Stevens Institute of Technology, a premier, private research university, and Accenture have initiated a research and education collaboration to focus on analytics for the financial services industry. As part of the three-year collaboration, Accenture and Stevens will conduct advanced analytics research projects and workshop sessions with Accenture’s financial services clients, and Stevens will begin offering a Financial Services Analytics (FSA) Graduate Certificate Program in January 2015.

The FSA curriculum was developed to combine the latest academic thinking with industry-proven experience to address evolving analytics needs in the financial services industry, including aspects of financial big data and data visualization. Coursework is being offered through Stevens’ School of Systems and Enterprises, Financial Engineering (FE) Division. The FE Division at Stevens offers comprehensive research and education programs at the master’s and doctoral levels, and is led by world-renowned and industry-connected faculty.

Qualified students will have the opportunity to participate in internships with Accenture and other leading firms. Scholarships funded by Accenture will be awarded to two students per year to cover tuition and fees for the FSA graduate certificate.

According to recent Accenture research, one of the main big-data challenges organizations are facing globally is the lack of talent to implement and run big data and analytics on an ongoing basis. For the financial services industry, the demand for professionals with credentials in financial services analytics is strong, and it is growing at a rapid pace.  Another report by Accenture indicates that the United States could face a shortage of more than 260,000 analysts by 2015. The same report, “The Looming Global Analytics Talent Mismatch in Banking,” articulated specific strategies for closing the talent gap, including the addition of business analytics coursework at the university level. The Financial Services Analytics Graduate Certificate Program is specifically designed to help close the talent gap through graduate-level coursework.

“Finding and accessing analytics talent will require innovative sourcing strategies to bridge the gap between supply and demand,” said John DelSanto, senior managing director for Accenture’s Financial Services group in North America. “Stevens is teaching and researching complex systems and data analytics at a level that ties into an entire class of problems that we are addressing with our clients. As a result, Stevens graduates are well prepared to work on some of the most important business challenges of our times in financial services.”

“During this ‘century of complexity,’ our ability to understand and analyze data with perceptive questions in mind, supported by our ability to visualize the results of our analysis to allow strategic insights and critical decision-making, will be a key competitive discriminator for all organizations – commercial, government and academic,” said Dinesh Verma, dean of the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens. “With this in mind, the Stevens-Accenture collaboration has been established to develop optimal analytical competencies for the financial services enterprise.”

“In today’s financial environment of large data sets and data overload, there is a need for techniques to discover unique insights that allow businesses to increase the effectiveness of business operations, enhance customer relationships, improve product offerings and improve risk analysis and risk management,” said Dr. Rupak Chatterjee, an industry professor and deputy director of Financial Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology.  “The Stevens FSA curriculum was created based on the needs of Accenture’s clients in all of the major areas of the financial services industry – companies that can benefit from cutting-edge tools for the modern data-driven world.  The FSA certificate will put students at the leading edge of financial analytics and technologies that are so critical for the big-data needs found in almost all aspects of life.”

The FSA Graduate Certificate Program features classes in topics such as:

• Data Quality and Composition
• Advanced Data Mining, Analytics and Visualization
• Creation of Databases and Decision-Making Tools
• Enterprise Level Data Analytics and Delivery

The 15-credit graduate certificate program is considered an option for completing a Financial Engineering Master’s Degree. Classes will be taught by Stevens scholars in Accenture’s midtown Manhattan offices, online and on Steven’s’ campus in Hoboken

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