London, United Kingdom – September 07, 2021 – Exasol, the high-performance analytics database, has today announced that it has become a national funding partner for not-for-profit organization, Primary Engineer’s, STATWARS® competition. The competition aims to get primary and secondary pupils excited about data by embedding it into the heart of the educational system so they can more inherently develop a better understanding of its value in business and in everyday life. 

This is especially important today with recent research from Exasol raising questions about the role that education plays in preparing young people to enter an increasingly data-driven workplace. The study found that 16-to-21-year-olds don’t feel their schooling goes far enough in teaching them the data skills necessary for the workplace, despite half (49%) agreeing that working with data will play a major role in their future career. 

It is exactly for this reason that the objective of the STATWARS® competition directly aligns with Exasol’s own belief that this untapped potential could spur a revolution in the way data is used to transform the world around us. 

“We are thrilled to be partnering with STATWARS® to support its goal in inspiring and encouraging more young people to get excited by data,” said Peter Jackson, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Exasol. “In today’s increasingly data-driven world, if we do not have the right people with the right skills who know how to process, interpret, and make data actionable, we are in danger of missing out on new ways to solve data challenges and push the boundaries as we know it. That’s why it was important for us to get involved in the STATWARS® competition. The next generation of young prodigies will be our future data champions, playing a significant role in helping to solve some of the world’s most important challenges.” 

STATWARS® is a free competition that is open to Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 pupils. Running throughout the 2021/22 UK school year, the competition encompasses two data projects: STATWARS®: Climate Change Challenge, which empowers and educates young people to tackle climate change using data, and STATWARS® Film & TV, which encourages young people to engage with data by designing a film or TV series.

Both projects provide two entry points for young people to become excited about analyzing, interrogating, and presenting data. It does so by promoting an understanding of real-world use of mathematics, allowing pupils to follow simple or complex lines of enquiry from start to finish, conjecture relationships and generalizations in order to develop coherent, justified arguments that are based on thorough data analysis. 

STATWARS® provides free teaching resources including lesson plans, activity sheets and video tutorials to unlock the value of data, as well as live interviews with data experts and skills sessions from experts. By connecting with data specialists and industry professionals in the competition pupils access multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace.

Dr Susan Scurlock, Chief Executive at Primary Engineer, welcomed the partnership by saying: “We are delighted that Exasol is supporting the STATWARS® competition. Data analysis is a crucial aspect to many things in everyday life – often in unexpected and surprising ways. That was the starting point for the competition which gives young people the opportunity to analyze their own carbon impact or find the next hit TV show. It encourages them to collect and unpick data then use it to form their outcome and explain their decision. Having Exasol as one of our national partners allows us to link today’s data analysts with tomorrows – helping them build their knowledge and find out how much fun data really is!”

ENDS

About Exasol

Exasol was founded in 2000 with the vision to transform how organizations use data. Today, Exasol’s analytics database – the fastest in the world – is trusted by the world’s most ambitious organizations. With offices in several locations across the US and Europe, Exasol is committed to delivering flexible, scalable and powerful analytics solutions to customers wherever they are, in the cloud or on-premises. 

Exasol – accelerating insights from the world’s data.

Learn more at: www.exasol.com and follow us on social media: LinkedIn and Twitter.

About STATWARS®

STATWARS® is a data project, with multiple curriculum links to science, mathematics, computing, engineering as well as English and even geography. The engagement with data specialists and industry professionals in the competition allows pupils multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. STATWARS® has been developed by Primary Engineer® and is fully funded across the UK by several funding partners. STATWARS® provides free teaching resources including lesson plans, activity sheets and video tutorials to unlock the value of data, as well as live interviews with data experts and skills sessions from experts. For more information visit www.statwarscompetition.com.

About Primary Engineer

STATWARS® is a fully-funded annual competition developed by Primary Engineer®. Primary Engineer is an educational not-for-profit organisation that provides a suite of programmes to encourage children from 3 to 19 years to consider STEM and data careers. Primary Engineer inspires children, pupils, parents and teachers through continued professional development, whole class project work, competitions, and engagement with industry professionals to ensure the learning has a context to the wider world. Primary Engineer promotes engineering and data careers and addresses the diversity and gender imbalance in engineering and data with early years, primary and secondary pupils. For further information visit www.primaryengineer.com.

PR Contacts:
Izzy Ward, EMEA PR Manager at Exasol
Email: isabella.ward@exasol.com

Alex Gribbin, Primary Engineer
Email: office@primaryengineer.com 

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