The Challenge
Being a content-driven organization, DPG Media had the ambition to transform into a data-driven organization, making decisions all based on data. To make that happen, DPG Media’s workforce needed to be involved in this transformation as well as to be educated.
How we create value
A modified Data Science Capability Building education program
Benefits
By educating and training their employees through the education program of The Analytics Academy, DPG Media (formerly known as De Persgroep) has turned their ambition to transform into a data-driven company, into a reality. In the video, you can see how both the participants and coaches experienced the program, and what the impact of the program has been for DPG Media. Without doubt, data plays a crucial role at DPG Media. In fact, data forms the basis of all decisions the media company takes. Considering the ambition of DPG Media to transform into a data-driven organization, they decided to focus on education in order to achieve this ambition. In collaboration with The Analytics Academy, they have realized this through a tailor-made Data Science Capability Building program.
The education program of The Analytics Academy consisted of sessions for directors and management and two extensive tracks for Data Scientist & Data Engineers and Data Analysts & Reporters.
“In these tracks, the participants learned the theoretical principles and, in addition, gained experience in applying Python – an important programming language. Afterwards, they put their knowledge into practice through proof-of-concept projects, accompanied by on-the-job coaches”, ---
Taco Wijnsma, former Program Manager of The Analytics Academy, explains.
For DPG Media, the value of the training is not solely gaining knowledge.
“Various cases have shown promising potential value and are being elaborated on. In addition, it has contributed to the satisfaction, engagement, and learning potential of the participants. Moreover, being able to offer such an education program to potential new talent, is an important aspect”, Wijnsma says.
According to Frank Mekkelholt, Product Owner of DPG Media’s Dutch Data lake, the training also led to an internal change:
“People from different departments started getting to know each other. This way, we get rid of internal silos and ‘walls’, which makes it easier for people to reach their colleagues when facing data-related questions.”
The Analytics Academy offers a broad spectrum of trainings to support organizations in building data science capability in each phase of the data-driven transformation. The Analytics Academy is a cooperation between ORTEC, Amsterdam Business School of the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam Data Science.