Glyn Townsend

Senior Director, Education Services @SAS

Reading, GB

There is a massive industry issue which will impact all aspects of industry; the shortage of data skills in the workforce. World Economic Forum projects an additional 11.5m people will require these skills by 2026. SAS has been the leader in the Analytics space for over 40 years, and we are in a great position to help our customers meet this skills gap head-on. Since joining SAS in 2021, I have realigned the country based model to a single EMEA region, ensuring we can deliver the highest quality training to any customers throughout the region that needs it. Developed a new call to action for our customers and internal team alike - Gain, Train & Retain. This has allowed us to align the activities we have with over 700 universities in EMEA, teaching SAS within their curriculums, to our customers with Talent Connect - ensuring our clients gain access the brightest new talent to meet their analytics needs. Trained Employees are more effective. We build clear learning paths and success metrics - helping our customers reduce time spent on data management and other activities, achieve faster onboarding and more consistent working, with a clear ROI, both linked and measured. Lastly, engaged employees are less likely to leave. Our clear approach to mentoring, training and support ensures teams do not get frustrated, and enjoy their work and are more productive. This approach has helped customers reduce attrition from >30% to less than 6%The future looks good for SAS Education, with significant growth across all metrics, and increasing investment to ensure we are in the right markets to support our customer\'s talent needs