Cultivating Tomorrow’s Data Talent: The SAS Viya for Learners Challenge
In an increasingly data-driven world, building a robust talent pipeline in analytics and AI begins with immersive, real-world learning experiences. The SAS Viya for Learners Challenge is such an experience and for the last 5 years has been an incubator of tomorrow’s data professionals.
Bridging Classroom Theory with Practical Skills
Hosted on Kaggle, the SAS Viya for Learners Challenge invites students to navigate a complete analytics lifecycle—from data exploration to deployment—using SAS Viya. Based in the cloud, SAS Viya for Learners offers students the opportunity to either use no-code apps like SAS Visual Analytics, or program in SAS, Python, or R. Students work through a simulated, business-focused problem, gaining hands-on exposure to data wrangling and machine learning model building.
Gamified Learning Drives Engagement
Run across 5 days, the challenge leverages gamification—leaderboards, badges, and interactive feedback—to heighten motivation and enhance learning. Students track their progress in real time, creating a healthy competitive spirit that pushes them to continually improve their analytical models. These game-like elements not only make analytics fun but also reinforce persistence, experimentation, and critical thinking—key traits for aspiring data professionals.
Credentialing with Digital Badges
Completing the challenge also earns participants a digital badge, a modern credential that bolsters resumes and LinkedIn profiles. This immediate recognition serves as a tangible indicator of competency in analytics and SAS Viya, giving students a competitive edge in the job market.
Anchoring Students in Real-World Context
A critical element of the challenge is the real-world use case. Developed by SAS experts, the use cases provide students the opportunity to apply theory and knowledge learnt as part of degree programs, alongside SAS technology skills and application methodology. This mix enhances students understanding of how theory is put into practice and how AI and analytics generate business insights and inform decisions. Building readiness for industry roles.
Building Careers One Challenge at a Time
Alumni of the challenge go on to meaningful careers. For example, Alejandro Rivera Alvarez described their experience as an opportunity to “demonstrate my skill & knowledge but also to learn more, with SAS Viya for Learners,”. Alejandro is now a Supply Chain Finance Analyst at Kraft Heinz. Another participant, Pragathee Velraj from the University of Queensland, noted that the leaderboard format motivated her to “proactively solve problems” and clarified her enthusiasm for a data science career.
Integrating the Challenge into Curriculum
Educators play a crucial role in scaling the impact of this initiative. The SAS Viya for Learners Challenge can be embedded into university or college programs in several ways:
- Capstone Projects: Lecturers can use the challenge as a project for analytics, data science, or statistics courses. Students apply classroom concepts directly in a competitive, applied setting.
- Assessment Integration: Participation in the challenge can count toward coursework grades, incentivizing students to fully engage. Educators can assess not only model accuracy but also teamwork, documentation, and interpretation of results.
- Skill-Building Workshops: Faculty can run preparatory workshops that teach students how to navigate SAS Viya, work with large datasets, and interpret leaderboards, ensuring that students enter the challenge confident and ready.
- Industry Linkages: By highlighting employer interest in challenge credentials, educators can show students the tangible career value of participation, strengthening industry-academia ties.
- Cross-Disciplinary Use: Because SAS Viya supports multiple programming languages and industries, the challenge can be integrated into business, engineering, healthcare, and social science programs alike.
Empowering a Robust Talent Pipeline
Events like the SAS Viya for Learners Challenge and the upcoming SAS Hackathon enable experiential learning. And can play a pivotal role in developing industry-ready data & AI talent. Educators who embed the challenge into their curriculum help students graduate not just with knowledge, but with demonstrable, real-world analytics experience.
