Tableau partners with Pathstream to build equitable access to data education

At Tableau, we have had a front-row seat to the rising need for data skills across all organizations, all communities, and groups.  From marketing, operations, to sales and all aspects of leadership -  everyone needs to know how to read and communicate with data. Since 2011, Tableau Academic Programs have been supporting the growing need for data skills by offering free resources for learning and teaching Tableau in the classroom - 1.6 million students - and counting -  have acquired data skills through our program. While we will continue building support and resources for this space, higher education and corporate training cannot fill this huge and growing need for data skills without help. The mission to create a more equitable, data-literate world requires teamwork and collaboration—that is why we partnered with Pathstream. 

Pathstream is a leading edtech provider that partners with software companies to build branded digital skills career programs delivered through college and university partnerships. In collaboration with Tableau, Pathstream developed a 5-month fully-online Data & Business Analytics Certificate that builds critical skills to connect college and career for non-traditional students. Through this program, students learn to perform powerful data analysis and drive business decisions using Tableau, SQL, and spreadsheets. In addition to technical skills, students receive career counseling and support including resume writing, confidence-building interview preparation, and direct introductions to hiring managers filling open roles.

Currently, the Certificate program is offered through 10 colleges and universities across the country, including NYU, Foothill College, and Emory. Pathstream’s 2021 expansion to new higher education institutions included Florida A&M University. We are thrilled that this program is offered at such a storied historically black college or University (HBCU). Additionally, in an effort to accelerate their commitments to reskilling and upskilling our nation’s workforce, Pathstream has established partnerships to provide the program to frontline and warehouse workers at some of America’s largest online retailers. We’re looking forward to expanding the program to serve as many people as possible, with a clear lens towards opportunities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Tableau has been the ideal partner in creating the Data Analytics program,” says Pathstream CEO Eleanor Cooper.

The Certificate program focuses on hands-on, real-life projects that cover the holistic set of abilities required to be job-ready for a data analytics career—integrating hard skills, leveraging spreadsheets, SQL, and Tableau alongside soft skills such as critical thinking and digital communication.

The program has shown stunning success, with over 2,000 registrations since enrollment opened in September 2020. Students enrolled in the program have collectively spent more than 600 hours hands-on with Tableau. Best of all, even in the currently abysmal job market, demand for data-related roles has shown resilience, and students graduating from the program are successfully landing great jobs. To mention a few: 

Katya completed the Tableau Business & Data Analytics Certificate as part of the first cohort of students at Cañada College. After immigrating from Brazil in the 1990s, Katya had worked in the sales and marketing fields before having children. After 10 years, she was eager to reenter the workforce. She enrolled in the data analytics program in order to gain the necessary digital skills to make her a competitive applicant in the job market. Katya worked with the Pathstream career services team to refine her resume and LinkedIn profile and prepare for interviews. In May, 2020 she was hired in a contract role as a Marketing and Sales Operations Administrator for EdCast, an education technology company in Silicon Valley. Katya applied the skills she learned in the certificate program to create reports and dashboards; analyze marketing and sales data; set KPIs, and answer business questions in streamlined ways. Once that contract ended she was hired into a full-time role as a Revenue Operations Analyst for Asana, based in San Francisco.

Another student, Tehreem, completed the Tableau Business and Data Analytics Certificate through NYU. With a background in journalism and copywriting, when she was looking for a change she saw the immense potential in learning Tableau as a way to not only start a career in data analytics but also augment her writing with data storytelling. With the help and support of Pathstream’s robust career services, Tehreem was recently hired as a Data Analyst at Globe Life and shared, "[Pathsream] made sure that I had the resources I needed to come out of the program with a job.” 

Additionally, employers are excited about how the Tableau and Pathstream course helps close the skilled worker gap. For example, Alphan Kirayoglu, the Data and Engineering Lead for Flatiron Health called the certificate program “a very comprehensive curriculum” and noted that it “covers the core tools I would expect a data analyst to be able to use including SQL and Tableau...it’s great that this program results in a capstone project and other assignments that demonstrate tangible outcomes.” Eric Menendez, a Senior Engineer at Twitter said, “This Certificate program covers the foundational skills I look for in the data analysts I've hired...If a candidate came through with these types of skills and experiences on their resume, I would definitely consider them for an interview." Based on the quality of the program to make students job-ready, several staffing agencies, including TEKSystems, Kelly Services, Qualstaff and several others, have agreed to automatically pass candidates who have completed the Certificate from Pathstream through resume screening directly to interview with hiring managers and/or feature their credentials on their job board profile.

The early success of the Tableau Academic-Pathstream partnership shows that people are hungry for affordable, effective, and human-supported online education that can help get them into high-quality jobs as fast as possible, without requiring them to take on burdensome student debt. Additionally, it shows how eager employers are to hire job seekers who are proficient in Tableau and data analytics. The Tableau & Pathstream partnership is positioned to support employers and individuals on the journey to greater opportunity and will continue working toward building a more data literate world!

 

To learn more about how Tableau Academic Programs are helping to close the data literacy gap by supporting students and instructors as they learn and/or teach Tableau in the classroom, please visit our website. If you are ready to start your data literacy journey and are not sure where to get started, check out our free online course - Data Literacy for All -  and start learning today!