The Digital Office for Scottish Local Government (DOSLG) has announced the release of an online learning resource to build data literacy across the public sector.
Named Getting Started with Data, it has been developed with the Scottish Government Data Division, the Scottish Digital Academy and Perth and Kinross Council.
DOSLG said the resource is available for integration into learning management systems, and while initially developed for local authorities can also be applied to other settings across the public and third sectors.
It provides a course guiding learners through describing: why information is important to their role and organisation; different types of data used; how their actions can generate good or bad data; and why it is important to care for their data.
It has been developed by a steering group set up in January of this year to consider how to iterate and scale the delivery of data literacy skills, based on work already done by Perth and Kinross Council
The group worked with data company Effini and the DataLab innovation centre on the project.
Building cohesion
The Scottish Digital Academy is also taking forward a series of work packages aimed at enabling a more cohesive approach to digital capability. Each package contains a number of projects and deliverables which are intended to help find, manage, and develop capability.
The programme is a key enabler to public service reform by embedding reuse as the norm, driving efficiencies across services, and the development of the Scottish public sector digital ecosystem.
DOSLG said it will take a few years to complete but expects the first iterations over the coming weeks with incremental developments moving into 2024.
Tom Wilkinson, chief data officer at the Scottish Government, said: “The learning resource addresses an urgent need across the Scottish public sector and is part of an overall strategy to help build data skills capability and realise the value of data sharing and reuse in Scotland.”
