Satisfying the need for applied statisticians

During the 60s and 70s students were encouraged to become statisticians because of the intrinsic interest of the discipline and because of the predicted future need for statisticians. Many people who appreciated the wide applicability of statistics felt that it was only a matter of time before employers would be crying out for statisticians and that newspapers would be full of advertisements for interesting and well-paid jobs for statisticians. The ensuing campaign to attract students was reasonably successful and the number of students majoring in statistics showed slow but steady growth. Unfortunately, the demand for statisticians did not grow at the predicted rate. One of the reasons for this was that the people making the employment decisions tended to have little understanding of statistics and would be far more inclined to employ an engineer or an economist, even when the job was primarily statistical nature. For a number of years I have given a course, "Statistics for Research Workers", and have been disturbed by the number of people attending this introductory course who have been working as statisticians. The last decade has seen a dramatic change due primarily, to the computer. Many more people now have the opportunity and the need to work with data, and the ability to readily carry out, though not necessarily understand, quite complex statistical procedures. There has also been a substantial increase in the statistical training of people for a wide range of professions so that there is, overall, a much greater awareness of the need for and the benefits to be gained from statistical expertise. As a consequence, the number of jobs being advertised which specify statistical expertise has grown to the point where there is now a recognised shortage of well trained statisticians. By the early 80s Honours courses were starting to change to reflect the students' interests and in 1984 Melbourne, Monash and LaTrobe Universities started to explore the possibility of mounting a joint MSc by Coursework programme in order to try to satisfy the need for applied statisticians.