Elizabethtown College announces SAS joint certificate program for data analytics

Offers real-world learning with regional firms

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ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (06/06/2018) Elizabethtown College recently partnered with SAS, formerly known as Statistical Analysis System, to offer a joint certificate for students in the College's data analytics minor.

Based in Cary, N.C., SAS is a data analytics powerhouse with customers in 149 countries, and their SAS software suite is installed in more than 83,000 business, government and university sites around the world. Almost all of the top-100 companies on the 2017 Fortune Global 500 are SAS customers. Revenue for the company in 2017 was $3.24 billion.

The Elizabethtown College-SAS Joint Certificate is unique in that it is only for students seeking to obtain a data analytics minor at Elizabethtown College. Additionally, Elizabethtown College is one of the few schools offering a data analytics minor along with a capstone course providing real-world problem with regional firms. The certification is available to data analytics students at no additional cost and is tied directly to classes students already take in the minor, helping them gain in-demand skills for the digital age and real-world learning opportunities.

Upon completion of the required courses, students receive the SAS certification at graduation along with their diploma.

"The combination of the minor with a project-based capstone, along with the SAS certificate, will enable Elizabethtown College to carve out a unique niche in a growing field of study," said Sylvester Williams, co-director of E-town's Data Analytics Center.

Elizabethtown coordinated the partnership with this national firm, widely known in the field of data analytics, as a way to help raise the profile of the College's new data analytics minor. The certification allows E-town students to compete at a higher level compared to other programs, opening opportunities to compete for jobs they might not have been able prepared for without the SAS certificate.

The partnership with SAS brings with it free teaching materials, discount on SAS books, support services, professional development opportunities and free and low-cost SAS software options.

"None of our peer institutions have a data analytics minor with a project-based capstone that is tied directly to a competency certificate program with the largest data analytics software firm in the United States," said Williams. "This key fact provides our program with distance from other schools."