SAS launches free data skills programme for job seekers Pro bono data skills programme, in tandem with job placement agencies, has the aim of training 10,000 people Share this item with your network: By Published: 10 Mar 2021 13:45 SAS has launched a free programme to train 10,000 job seekers in data skills, called STEP. The programme has come out of an internal SAS UK and Ireland employee competition, provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Ahead of launch, Roderick Crawford, vice-president and country manager, SAS UKI, described the programme’s origins. “We asked ourselves, beyond giving access to our software for free, we wanted to do something with a big impact, and so asked our employees what they wanted to do, and this was the winner,” he said. “It took our breath away.”