SMU is stepping up its efforts to nurture infocomm talent for emerging industries. From August next year, SMU School of Information Systems (SIS) will have a revised curriculum which not only trains its students to develop infocomm solutions for various industries, its undergraduates can also specialise in emerging sectors such as financial technology and cybersecurity from third year onwards based on one’s interest and aspiration, providing greater flexibility for students to prepare for their career choices.

SIS Associate Dean Professor Venky Shankararaman said in an interview that the School hopes to further strengthen the skills of its graduates so as to better meet market demand. “The current curriculum focuses more on application development skills; besides having a greater emphasis on creating solutions, the new curriculum will also impart skills that are more closely aligned with the students’ areas of specialisations,” he noted. On average, SIS takes in 280 freshmen each year.

With growing demand for data analytics skills, SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business and School of Accountancy are offering specialisations in analytics. In August this year, the School of Accountancy has launched the Data Analytics track to equip its students with analytics skill sets. From AY2017 onwards, LKCSB will offer specialisations in Analytics, applied specifically to Finance, Operations Management and Marketing sectors to give students the opportunity to specialise and acquire up-to-date analytics skills and knowledge, thereby giving them a competitive edge.