Data Skills for Work

As part of the City Region Deal’s DDI Skills Gateway, Data Skills for Work aims to create routes for those already in work, or returning to work, to develop the skills needed to participate in a data-driven economy.

Whilst the increasing use of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence have been bringing changes to jobs and the kind of skills we need for a number of years, other factors can speed up those changes.

For many people, the Covid-19 pandemic meant the swift introduction to remote working, while, for others, it may threaten their current role as employers increase their use of automation to enhance future resilience.

The ambition of Data Skills for Work is to boost the region’s labour market with a range of data skills. The project aims to ensure that those in occupations like manufacturing, administration, secretarial and sales – and those experiencing barriers to training and employment – are given the opportunity to gain vital skills, from basic data literacy to advanced data science.

We all need data skills

But Data Skills for Work isn’t about training everyone to become a data scientist – our wider workforce needs a broader set of skills to help people at every level understand and creatively solve problems using data. Our programme will help data citizens understand how their personal data is used and their rights and responsibilities over this. We will identify learning journeys for data workers who are seeing changes to their roles and who are increasingly being required to work with large quantities of data. We also want to ensure equality of access for data workers to upskill into data professional roles, and that data leaders have the tools to drive value from data for their organisations, and understand the skills they need to support their strategy.

Upskilling and retraining in digital

Through consultation with a range of employers across the City Region we have developed a framework for upskilling or retraining in data that is designed to help employers, individuals and training providers define the key skills and capabilities at each level of data literacy, supporting them to recognise existing data skills and areas where they could improve, plan for future requirements and make informed skills investment decisions, and develop learning resources that support this..

Through our Data Skills Credits scheme, we provide funding for at-risk and low paid employees in roles that are likely to be changed by automation, and to those returning to work who are keen to upskill and reskill – directing people to relevant courses provided by the region’s colleges, universities, and other training providers. Funding will also be available for businesses to access leadership training through The Data Lab to help them understand how data might be used to transform their business models, guiding them to the development of a data literate workforce.

 

For more information

Visit: Data Skills for Work

Contact: skills@thedatalab.com 

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The ambition of Data Skills for Work is to boost the region's labour market with a range of data skills

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