By Mish Molakeng
Data Science, and the extraction of insights from vast amounts of data, is now the new oil.
Bongekile Filane, 27, from the rural Eastern Cape, had her sights on data mining, breaking into chunks and further analysing to create value – and then selling these insights to customers who need it to improve their own business operations.
Filane, who now runs a start-up company that mines data for the tourism sector, is one of 180 learners who have recently completed a Data Science skills programme.
This programme is a partnership between the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies, as well as the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICTSETA).
Filane is now working with customers based in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to assist them with using data to make informed business decisions and attract more tourists to these provinces.
“Currently, we mine data for the provincial tourism sector and district municipalities to assist them to improve their decision-making when it comes to their local tourism strategies. We use data to make them understand the entire tourism value chain,” she says.
The training course was aimed at young people from disadvantaged and rural backgrounds. It forms part of a broader skills programme to equip young people for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and digital job market.
Filane says there is huge opportunity for data mining in all three spheres of government.
“Government, across the national and provincial government, as well as municipalities, is the biggest depository of data. Often this data is not being mined or used extensively. This is where I see an opportunity.”
As a start-up company owner in the data mining space, Filane has faced her share of challenges.
“It has not been an easy journey. We consistently need to convince companies and provincial governments about the importance of digital transformation and the integral role that data can play in the information and growth transformation strategies.
"Our primary focus is to obtain, aggregate and analyse the data to give comprehensive and valuable insights,” says Filane.
Speaking at the certificate handover ceremony on Tuesday, Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said: “Data Science mining can help governments to reduce costs, eliminate risk and optimise limited resources.”
Describing the course, Filane says it offered her a unique opportunity to understand that data is not just about numbers but there is a story behind each data set.
“I have acquired not only technical skills, but problem solving skills, as we were doing practical assessments that forced us to solve everyday challenges or use data insights to achieve social impact."
