Shoprite Group’s Data Science Academy

Do you love working with numbers? Does big data excite you? Are you interested in joining the biggest retail enterprise in Africa?

Then sign up for an apprenticeship at the Shoprite Group’s Data Science Academy. Applications for the January 2020 intake are open from now until the end of September this year.

According to a statement released by Publicity Manager for Shoprite Checkers, Zimkitha Mquteni-Mabanga, data science is a multidisciplinary field that combines mathematics, statistics, and computer science to automatically extract knowledge and insights from large amounts of data for the purposes of improved decision making. At the Shoprite Group, data sets involve sales, inventory, consumer spending and much more.

“The Shoprite Group consists of 16 trusted brands, which serves more than 35 million customers annually, employs 147 000 people across 15 African countries,” said Mquteni-Mabanga.

Maegan MacKenzie, one of the academy’s eight apprentices, believes there is no better place to gain experience of data science than at Shoprite: “It provides an incredible environment in which to learn about data science and its applications, while also gaining knowledge about the retail industry,” said the 22-year-old graduate from Stellenbosch University.

Mquteni-Mabanga also said that a key component is the mentoring each apprentice receives from an experienced data scientist. These mentors act as guides for the apprentices who are given real work problems to which they have to apply the knowledge obtained through the academy or at university.

“Included in the curriculum are tools and languages, such as Tableau, SQL, Python, and AWS Cloud products, which are routinely required when building data science applications. Apprentices also benefit from job immersion and self-paced project work, which both involve team dynamics and interactions. In addition, they gain exposure to areas such as data validation and exploration, statistical modeling and machine learning across different areas that include pricing and promotions, inventory and waste management,” said Mquteni-Mabanga.

To be considered for this programme candidates must already have a postgraduate degree in one of these fields:

• Data science,
• Mathematics,
• Statistics,
• Operational research,
• Quantitative management (or similar quantitative degree),
• Computer science,
• Actuarial science

Send your CV and a short motivation to datascience@shoprite.co.za by no later than 30 September 2019 to be considered for a place at the academy.

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