Tech Futures Lab offers executive course on digital transformation

For most professionals taking two to three years out for further education is not an option. The programme provides a year's worth of higher learning in 10 weeks, says Frances Valintine of the Mind Lab.

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Frances Valintine, director of the Mind Lab, with Adiba Barney, CEO of Silicon Valley Forum at an NZTech event: “We need to get more women to want to start tech companies...steer the wheel.”

The programmes will fast-track the applied learning of some of the most sought after skill sets in the world right now.

The 10-week programme aims to upskill people for 21st century careers, says Francis Valintine, chair of The Mind Lab by Unitec and 2016 Blake Leader.

“We recognise that for most business professionals and their employers, taking two to three years out for further education is simply not an option," says Valintine.

"Our programmes provide a year’s worth of higher-learning in a 10 week immersion programme."

The sessions will be held at the Tech Futures Lab in Newmarket. The course will start in September, and will cost $9500 + GST.

The course is designed for professionals looking to equip themselves with technical and business transformation skills.

The Tech Futures Lab offers five full-time, 10-week immersion programmes – cybersecurity, robotics and automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, data science and big data; and business innovation and disruption.

Candidates will select one of the five programmes as their core focus – but they will also work with other candidates on "cross-specialisation projects".

Tech Futures Lab is a private public partnership between Valintine and Unitec.

The programmes also provide a specialist learning pathway for New Zealand businesses to upskill and provide professional development opportunities for their people, in a similar mould to that of Singularity University and Harvard Business School – a first for New Zealand, according to Valintine.

Candidates will spend 40 hours per week learning, testing and applying relevant and specialist knowledge that can then be integrated back into the workplace.

There is a real gap in the market for local high-intensity, immersive courses that will equip New Zealand professionals with the skills to lead and navigate the disruptive change businesses are facing

“The programmes will fast-track the applied learning of some of the most sought after skill sets in the world right now, fostering an investment that has the potential to take New Zealand businesses into the future.”

Valintine says that with the rapid advance and integration of technology across all sectors, it’s crucial that New Zealand businesses commit to skill development.

“We are living in an environment where business disruption is transforming the world around us at an incredible rate, and entire industries are being forced to overhaul their business models in order to survive," says Valintine, in a statement.

When compared with the Industrial Revolution, McKinsey Global Institute estimates that change in the Technological Revolution is occurring 10x faster, at 300x the scale, with 3000x the impact, she states.

“We are standing on the beach and the tidal wave is about to hit. No job, sector or industry is immune.”

Valintine says the courses will be taught by industry and technical experts on topics ranging from swarm robotics to artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship.

The team will be led by Sarah Hindle, who has just returned from the United Kingdom.

Hindle is a lawyer who shifted her career to advise CEOs and their teams on how to develop and exploit a competitive advantage in the face of complex and rapid change.