Advisory services provider, KPMG, has offered internship to the top 10 participants in the recently concluded Data Science Nigeria Bootcamp Hackathon.
According to the company, some of the qualified participants will also be provided full employment opportunities, subject to other recruitment considerations.
The beneficiaries are the participants adjudged to be the top 10 performers in the Data Science Nigeria Customer Segmentation Hackathon, which was supported and graded by KPMG Nigeria.
The bootcamp hosted about 150 participants, who qualified following pre-qualification examinations on Microsoft/Edx Data Science MOOC series and Data Camp followed by a public Kaggle competition.
Kaggle is a platform for predictive modelling and analytics competition in which data scientists compete to produce the best models for predicting and describing the datasets uploaded by companies and users.
The Senior Manager, Data and Analytics, KPMG Nigeria, Yomi Akinyemi, said, “It has indeed been a pleasure partnering Data Science Nigeria. KPMG is committed to local talent development as one of the ways of improving communities. This is what compelled the firm to collaborate with Data Science Nigeria on this initiative.
“The firm was quite impressed with the performance of the candidates and to encourage them to hone the skills they possess, we will be providing them with internships, and with the possibility of full-time employment at the firm.
He added, “This will afford these individuals the opportunity to employ data and analytics to solve a variety of real life business-focused problems; and to further develop their skills as they work side by side with KPMG D&A experts.
“KPMG is committed to local talent development as a leading global powerhouse in evidence-based analytics and will like to offer internship and possibly employment to the top 10 performers, subject to their availability. It has indeed been a pleasure partnering Data Science Nigeria.”
According to the KPMG feedback report, the top 10 participants displayed a superior ability to conceptualise the data provided and were able to tie it to the problems.
The report also showed that the participants were able to show the thought process behind the solutions proffered, making use of non-professional terms to explain complicated steps.
Giving an overall assessment of the top ten participants, the KPMG feedback report noted, “We believe they demonstrated good enough appreciation of the business problem and were able to leverage their technical knowledge to address the specific challenges.”
On his part, the convener of Data Science Nigeria, Bayo Adekanmbi, expressed his gratitude to KPMG for its support of the hackathon and for providing the feedback.
He said that the effort would further strengthen the drive to raise a new generation of world-class data scientists and knowledge entrepreneurs who would set up data science-based businesses and attract foreign exchange to Nigeria.
Adekanmbi added that this was one of the many indications that the project would attain its desired end.