Data Expert Program
Cross-industry program for professionals

As organizations are acquiring ever-greater volumes of data, the ability to leverage such data is becoming key to creating value. The skill to pinpoint trends and patterns and forecasting future consumer behavior makes data science one of the most rapidly growing professions. With demand outgrowing the supply of professionals, organizations are looking to train employees in data intelligence skills. 

The JADS Data Expert Program aims at educating data science-driven entrepreneurs. Participants learn how to create, develop and market data technologies; conduct research and present results in a clear, non-technical manner. They are also trained in applying data revolution innovations to develop smart, value-adding and sustainable business activities for both existing corporations as well as start-ups. After following the Data Expert Program, you are able to translate innovative, data driven ideas into concrete project requirements, develop innovative solutions, launch a business venture and assess its effectiveness. 
Program objectives
The Data Expert Program combines Data Engineering, Data Analytics and Entrepreneurship to create Business Impact. Therefore, the goals of this program are threefold.
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  • Business Impact: Acquire the skills and know-how to mine and model data and to articulate your discoveries and recommendations for existing or new business opportunities.
  • Entrepreneurship: Learn to turn big data into real value. From mining the economic value of personal data, to developing novel ways to apply actionable insights, through to discovering innovative strategic and marketing models.
  • Data Engineering and Data Analytics: Our learn-by-doing approach addresses the hard skills you require to successfully implement data projects. Get to understand data engineering and data analytics. Explore data sets, gather actionable insights, visualize results and communicate meaningful findings while taking into consideration underlying legal and ethical issues.

The model below summarizes what the Data Expert Program is all about:
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“I participated in the 2018 JADS Data Expert program because I wanted to learn how Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence can be used to extract more value from data in comparison to regular business intelligence solutions. I achieved this and much more. I learned how to prepare data, how to apply state of the art machine learning techniques to data and how to implement the results and findings within a business environment. This greatly increased my value for my employer and it enabled me to take the next step in my career.” - Tim Schuurman/Vivat
"I participated in the JADS Data Expert Program of 2018 to obtain more knowledge of data science and machine learning in particular. During the courses I learned every relevant technique and model and applied some of them in practice in my own business environment. Moreover, I also learned about implementing and gaining support for my ideas and products. As a result, BDO and myself now apply data science techniques in daily business and have made important steps towards a data driven financial audit." - Ruben Peters / BDO
Application requirements
You must be able to show a high level of motivation in formulating and solving complex problems in a data driven environment. You should also be eager to learn combining generalist with expert thinking. An entrepreneurial mind-set is second nature to you. In fact, if you can tick most of the following, this program could be for you.
  • Technical expertise: An absolute must is that you have expertise in a scientific discipline at Master's level.
  • Curiosity: You have an unstoppable desire to discover, distil and model a problem down to a clear set of concepts and hypotheses that can be tested.
  • Storytelling: Eagerness to develop the skill to use data to tell a story and to be able to communicate such a story effectively.
  • Creativity: You have the skill for looking at problems from different angles and finding creative solutions.​
The admission process will entail an intake call with Ronald Buijsse, Academic Director for the Data Expert Program.  

Program structure
​​The Data Expert Program is designed for ambitious professionals with a strong analytical and quantitative background. The duration of the program is 1 year: consisting of approximately 40 full working days - in general on Fridays and one weekend. Participants will receive an official certificate from JADS/Tilburg University/Eindhoven University of Technology at their graduation ceremony.

​The Data Expert Program comprises 9 modules. These modules cover all aspects of data science to reach the program objectives: focusing on Data Engineering and Data Analytics (knowledge and skills), Business Impact and Entrepreneurship.

​We have listed an overview of the modules and the related key topics and covered questions below:
Modules
Key topics and questions covered
Data Science Introduction
Data Science introduction on: 
-Data Entrepreneurship (why and how to find data opportunities) 
-Data and Business Analytics (how to find insights) Data and Business Analytics (how to find insights)
-Data Engineering (how to prepare data) Data Engineering (how to prepare data) 
Data-driven Entrepreneurship
​​How can you improve your entrepreneurial attitude and skills? How can you benefit from the Lean Startup concepts, with focus on ideation and validation? And how can you use business model concepts and data to create or improve business? You will learn from patterns in innovative data-driven products and services and learn how to facilitate the digital transformation of your organization. 
​Data Engineering
​​How to handle data? How to deal with both structured and unstructured data? How to develop both SQL and NoSQL skills? When and how to work with large data-processing frameworks such as Hadoop and SPARK?
​​Data Analytics
​​How to gain insights from data? What are the main principles underlying data-mining methods? What are the considerations for selecting particular methods? How to perform practical machine learning experiments?
​Business Analytics ​
​How to use data to identify, evaluate and capture business opportunities? When and how to use predictive and prescriptive analytics, especially to support decision-making in complex business situations?
​Ethics and Law
​​Learn to identify risks in data analytics in terms of research ethics and the social and environmental impact.
​Creative Thinking
​​How to interpret data and how to make decisions based on data? You will learn about artificial intelligence, the human brain, computational neural networks, (consumer) decision-making and recommender systems.
​​Visualization 
​​What methods are available for visualizing multivariate data, hierarchies, and networks? What is the relation between human perception and effective visualization?
​Decision-making
​What are the issues related to human and model-based decision-making? What are key arguments in favor and against model-based decision-making?
​Graduation Project
​The graduation project challenges you to put all lessons learned into practice. In this project you create, select and validate new data-driven business ideas, related to your current or future job position. This will include the definition of new viable, data-driven products and services, based on real datasets and state-of-the-art data engineering and data analytics tools and concepts. 
Teaching methodology
The Data Expert Program makes use of a mix of classroom and online elements to acquire skills and knowledge. This blended learning approach means we partner up with industry innovators, like Datacamp for instance, to ensure up to date and flexible courses.

JADS Insipire: Expert talks

Want to see for yourself if the Data Expert Program is something for you? Come and join us in our JADS Inpire program. In this free program experts in the field of Data Science give you a teaser of our program. Check out our JADS Inspire page to see the next possible date.
Fast Facts
Duration: 14 months
Time: 38 Fridays plus 1 full weekend. No classes during school holidays. 
Weekly hours: 10-12 hours per week for classroom, online learning and graduation project combined
Location: 's-Hertogenbosch

For information on selection rounds in June and September, please contact professionaleducation@jads.nl


For ambitious professionals
The Data Expert Program is designed for ambitious business professionals with a strong analytical and quantitative background and an interest in data intensive environments.
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​Admission requirements
  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in relevant field
  • At least 3 years of relevant working experience
  • ​English language proficiency​

​Contact information
For more information please contact:
Chantal Stevels
Program Coördinator
​c.v.stevels@jads.nl or professionaleducation@jads.nl
+31 (0)40 247 4100
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News
The JADS Data Expert Program was recently mentioned by Intermediair Magazine (in Dutch).
> Read more

Data Expert Program 2018
Graduation and testimonials