Databricks & Queensland unveil data & AI academy initiative
Databricks, a company specialising in data and AI, unveiled its new Data and AI Academy in cooperation with the Queensland State Government agencies.
The announcement was made during the Sydney leg of Databricks' Data + AI World Tour. This initiative aims to enhance the data and AI competencies of more than 100 public sector staff across various departments in Queensland.
Through this academy, Queensland Government employees will receive training in data analytics and AI, enabling them to become more proficient in using advanced technologies. The programme also includes a feature for training colleagues, thus aiming to empower public sector staff to better utilise Databricks' suite of data and AI capabilities.
Peter How, General Manager of Innovation & Delivery at the National Injury Insurance Scheme, Queensland (NIISQ), discussed the anticipated benefits of the academy for his organisation.
"Our organisation's digital transformation is well underway, yet a recent review of our data and AI capabilities revealed a skills gap when it came to deploying certain functionalities. Databricks' leading Data and AI Academy offered us the opportunity to empower our staff and ensure skills uplift within our workforce, owing to the programme's inherent knowledge-sharing feature," said How.
He added, "The learnings from the program will inform and fuel our organisation's capabilities for years to come, enabling our teams to co-design and provide improved services for our participants, external stakeholders and internal staff."
The academy aims to promote citizen data capabilities by simplifying complex preprocessing, engineering, and model training processes. This approach enables users to build, train, and deploy their own models through a low-code system.
Damon Atzeni, Director of Data and Analytics at Queensland Health, emphasised the critical role of the academy in advancing their strategic initiatives. "Key to our department's data strategy is the data and digital literacy of our staff, in a rapidly changing environment. The Data and AI Academy is just what we have been looking for as we face skills gaps across the department in leveraging data and AI processing capabilities and mounting implementations," Atzeni said.
He further noted, "The academy is our fast track to understanding the power of the solution we have and developing the skills to use it effectively. The programme has enabled us to self-manage deployments in reforming our health data, resulting in greater administrative efficiency and patient care insights."
Adam Beavis, Vice President and General Manager for Databricks in ANZ, highlighted the importance of focused training efforts. "Between Australia's tight talent market and the quick rise and rapid evolution of AI capabilities, many organisations understand they must double down on training efforts to run best-in-class operations," Beavis commented.
He added, "Our leading data and AI academy programme uniquely positions us to assist and guide institutions like the NIISQ and Queensland Health in upskilling staff to accelerate the development of different use cases and their implementation to further innovation."
Databricks has conducted an audit of key state government departments' data strategies. Based on this audit, the company identified the need for refined implementation strategies, leading to the development of this academy. Databricks is optimistic about extending the programme to other departments within the Queensland Government.
