Neueda

Success Stories

Accelerating Innovation in Sports Technology

Sports tech Technology & Telecoms

How we support Digital Skillnet and Sports Tech Ireland with a training program to help 20 women return to the workforce in Sports Tech

Client

Digital Skillnet

Industry

Technology & Telecoms

Specialism

Sports tech

The challenge

To create a training program that would help women return to work as Data Analysts in Sports Tech

The sports industry is experiencing a massive shift toward digital. Cloud platforms, AI and data analytics enhance athlete performance, improve the fan experience, and optimize sporting events.

This shift has led to international sports technology firms scaling their operations in Ireland, causing increased competition for staff with digital transformation skills or experience in sports data analytics.

This increased skill demand informed the impetus for the Digital Athlete Program.

Digital Skillnet had three main objectives for the training program:

  • Equip participants with the confidence to move back into the workforce and succeed in today’s hybrid working environment
  • Establish future-focussed digital and data analytics skills needed to extract insights from sports data-sets
  • Ensure participants understood the business of sport and how technology & data underpin all aspects of fan engagement, performance analytics and event management.

Our solution

Neueda designed a 12-week Digital Athlete instructor-led program. The program encompassed:

  • Business briefings from sports technology experts
  • Workplace skills including teamwork and collaboration, adopting a growth mindset, and presenting with impact
  • Essential data analytics and data science practices mapped across the data lifecycle from sourcing & cleaning data through analysis & visualisation to implementing predictive analytics
  • Self-directed digital pathways with leading content from Pluralsight and O’Reilly to augment the classroom training.

Two highlights of the program were:

  • Design Thinking Innovation Challenge where participants worked in small agile teams, using their innovation and product development skills to create a Sports Technology digital service
  • 10-week work placement where participants joined firms such as Stats Perform and sporting organizations such as Badminton Ireland to apply their new skills in the workplace.

Results

The Employer Perspective

From data to business insights

During the work placements, the digital athletes used PowerBI and Tableau to extract insights from enterprise data. This helped firms such as Epic Global and organizations including Badminton Ireland to improve client experiences and deliver continuous improvements.

Filling challenging roles

In a very competitive market for technical talent, the program has established new ways of recruiting data capable individuals. Many of the digital athletes have moved into full-time or contract roles as data analysts, data scientists or data engineers.

The Participant Perspective

Re-joining the workforce with new skills and confidence

The program brought together a cohort of women with a shared purpose – getting back into the workforce alongside a keen interest in technology and the sports sector.

The training has helped to rebuild professional networks, achieve the latest technical skills, and establish the confidence needed to impress during job interviews and succeed in the selection process.

“From 2010 we have worked with the team at Neueda to create a range of innovative national programs in technology, operations and leadership. With their experience of delivering future-focused training programs for global organizations, they continue to impress us with their business agility, their focus on excellent participant experiences and their practical commercial approach to ensure that training immediately enhances performance.”

Maire Hunt, Director – Digital Skillnet

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