ONS to train analysts for UK data strategy

The data strategy, which is open for consultation until 2 December, aims to turn the UK into a world-leading data economy by increasing skills and access to data.

The ONS will aim to have data analysts from across the public sector trained by 2021, and will deliver the training programme from its Data Science Campus, which was opened in 2017.

The Data Science Campus has recently audited the UK’s data skills, and has been delivering training in-house on everything from basic coding to advanced data science techniques using methods such as machine learning.

The training programme at the campus includes a new MSc in data analytics for government, apprenticeship programmes and a graduate data scientist programme.

Data projects run by the campus will be located at the ONS site in Newport, south Wales, with hubs in London, Titchfield in Hampshire and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s site in East Kilbride, Scotland.

The ONS will also run a new Government Data Quality Hub as part of the data strategy to improve data quality across government through a range of products and services.

Dave Johnson, deputy director at the Data Science Campus, said: “There has never been a greater demand for analysts capable of producing close to real-time analysis from an array of new and novel data sources to equip decision makers with the right level of info to make critical decisions about the UK’s future.

“We’ve taken the findings of our recent data science audit, the lessons we’ve learnt from the response to the pandemic and priorities outlined in the national data strategy and brought these together to offer the best and most relevant training we can to provide the skills government needs to help with their mission to transform our use of data.”