Enhancing data literacy: the UK Data Service Data Skills Framework

The presentation will introduce the UK Data Service Data Skills Framework for quantitative data skills training. https://zenodo.org/records/11110082. The framework aims to establish a robust framework for developing essential data analysis skills for the social, economic and population sciences, focusing on large-scale survey, census, and macro-level aggregate data. It has been developed in the context of a data landscape undergoing unprecedented change at rapid pace. It emphasises continued development of traditional data skills for contemporary research needs, while recognising growing potential for integrating survey or census data with an expanding array of other sources increasingly accessible to social scientists, as well as promising opportunities presented by AI and machine learning for enhancing analysis.

The presentation will cover the background and development of the Framework, the methodology, the final content of the framework and the feedback we've had from the community. We will discuss how we are using it within the UK Data Service to aid our own gap analysis of our training programme, training development, and strategic thinking for the next five years, as well as how we are using the Framework to collaborate with other data services. We present a number of potential wider use cases for the framework below and hope it can help in the continued development of a relevant and efficient training ecosystem for data analysis across the social sciences. We envisage it as a live and evolving piece of work, and very much welcome discussion on the content, particularly from the IASSIST international audience.