Data training and consulting
Building data capability
A literacy course for people without a technical background: reading and interpreting data for a purpose, then applying it to decisions. It spans quality management and open data work at public institutions and the shift to data-driven work in companies.
What does building data capability mean?
This course develops the literacy that lets people without a technical background read and interpret data for a purpose and apply it to decisions at work. It spans quality management and open data practice for public institution staff through to the shift to data-driven work in companies.
Designed for non-specialists
The curriculum is built so that people with no programming experience can read data, interpret it, and use it as evidence.
Practice on public sector tools
Participants work directly with the tools they will use: the public data inventory, the metadata management system, and the quality assessment system.
Linked to capability assessment
A capability assessment before and after the course identifies each person's gaps and maps a learning path to close them.
What you'll learn
The core material this course covers.
- Understanding public data (the law, disclosure policy, data-driven administration)
- Public data practice (inventory management, metadata management, quality assessment tools)
- Quality management fundamentals (policy, maturity indicators, standardization in practice)
- Hands-on quality assessment (procedures, criteria, tools, finding and fixing errors)
- Data literacy (the business view, EDA basics, reading visualizations)
- Case studies in data-driven administration
Curriculum
What we cover
- 1
Stage 1: Understanding public data
Cover what public data is and the law and policy around it, then how data is opened and how it gets used. Understand the operations assessment well enough to define your own role in it.
- 2
Stage 2: Public data in practice
Practice managing the data inventory, operating the metadata management system, and using the quality assessment and standards management systems.
- 3
Stage 3: Quality management fundamentals and practice
Cover quality management policy and maturity indicators and the basics of standardization. Hands-on work with assessment procedures, criteria, and tools shows you how to find and fix errors.
- 4
Stage 4: Understanding and applying data-driven administration
Cover the law and policy direction for data-driven administration and what the responsible officer's role involves. Work through cases where data shaped an administrative decision.
- 5
Stage 5: Analysis planning and application
Learn how to plan an analysis and apply it to a real task. Define how data connects to policy and how to spread the practices that work.
How teams put this to use
Data capability assessment and improvement plan for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
A capability assessment of frontline staff informed a tailored improvement plan that raised data usage across the ministry.
Data-driven administration capability program for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety
We designed and delivered a staged course for public officials, running from planning public sector analysis through to carrying it out.
Quality certification consulting and capability building for EPIS
Alongside support for obtaining quality certification, we built up the staff's own quality management skills so they could run it independently.
Expected outcomes
What changes once your team puts this to work on site.
- Staff handle quality management and open data themselves, so less work goes to outside contractors.
- Scores rise in data-driven administration maturity and assessment reviews.
- The organization talks in terms of data and wants to use it.
- People without a technical background get into the habit of backing their work with evidence.
Building data capability — FAQ
We run both formats: an intensive course of one to three days, or a distributed course of one half-day a week, whichever suits your institution. A capability assessment beforehand lets us adjust the modules to the range of levels in the room.
Participants receive an application guide and checklist for their own work. Where it helps, we also run separate mentoring sessions so what was taught actually reaches the day job.
Companies are welcome. We swap the public sector modules, such as the Public Data Act and the quality assessment system, for data literacy, EDA basics, and reading visualizations, so the course works for corporate employees.
We'll design the training around your operation
Schedule, group size, and curriculum detail all get set with you.