Capability: Civil service training

To what extent is the government providing training to develop civil servants' data literacy and data skills?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Public servants are key players in ensuring that data is used for public good, with institutional readiness to govern, work with, and publish or share data depending significantly on the involvement of motivated and skilled public servants.

Public servants in data-centered positions should have strong data skills, while public servants in more general positions should meet at least a minimum level of data literacy. Achieving this requires regular and ongoing training opportunities to develop and maintain data skills and literacy.

This indicator focuses on different training activities that governments may undertake to train public servants; these may involve teaching the basics for working with data or improving already existing capacities. Training activities may take place within particular agencies or through cross-cutting programs for all public servants; they may be delivered through online platforms, shared lectures, and so on.

Research Guidance

Start by identifying the public employment or public service national agency, and check whether it mentions training in a general sense and data-related training more specifically. You can also check for e-government or innovation institutions that may lead data training in the country.

Starting points

• Search:
  • Public service national agency;
  • Documents and laws describing national data strategies.
• Consult:
  • Data literacy experts;
  • Scholars and officers of civil society organizations working in topics such as e-government, state modernization, data for public good, etc.;
  • Public servants.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is there evidence of government´s actions to train civil servants on data matters? If there is such evidence, are training activities isolated efforts or they are part of a wider strategy?
• Do data training efforts target a general audience of public servants or do they focus only on data scientists and others that already work intensively with data?
• What topics does this training address?
  • Data governance, including laws, policies, and guidelines to collect and share data within the government and with external actors;
  • Data gathering: how to collect data in order to be able to use it effectively;
  • Data analysis, visualization, and storytelling;
  • Technical tools for working with data.
• In what context are these trainings delivered?
  • Are they run by an established government training department that works with various subjects, including data?
  • Are they available thanks to a partnership with an external institution, such as a university, civil society organization, or international organization?
  • Are they isolated trainings run by an external provider?
  • Do public servants receive a certification when completing training or is there some other formal recognition of the training as professional development?
• How widespread are these trainings in terms of agencies and ministries?

National and sub-national considerations

Some countries may have training programs at a national level, which may coordinate efforts with local governments. Other countries may have local trainings, but no national initiatives. Please record whether the trainings you have assessed for this indicator were delivered at national or sub-national governments in your answers to the questions on the scope and coverage of the training, and then explain further as appropriate in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is there evidence of government´s actions to train civil servants on data matters?
  • There is no evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters.
  • There is isolated evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters.

    Supporting questions: Please provide url of this evidence.Please indicate who is delivering these trainings: a dedicated government team, an occasional external supplier, an external mid-term partner such as universities, etc.

  • There is some evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters, as part of a planned and sustainable strategy.

    Supporting questions: Please provide url of this evidence.Please indicate who is delivering these trainings: a dedicated government team, an occasional external supplier, an external mid-term partner such as universities, etc.

  • There is widespread and regular evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters, as part of a planned and sustainable strategy.

    Supporting questions: Please provide url of this evidence.Please indicate who is delivering these trainings: a dedicated government team, an occasional external supplier, an external mid-term partner such as universities, etc.

Elements

• Kinds of capacities:

• Training delivered covers data frameworks and governance topics. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• Training delivered to public servants covers topics on data gathering. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• Training delivered covers data analysis, visualisations and storytelling techniques. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• Training delivered covers specific technical topics for data centred roles. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• User groups:

• Training on data addresses non-technical public servants. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'partially' if you find evidence of training that addresses non-technical roles, but it is not as widespread as training for technical roles.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide an explanation for your answer and supporting urls if needed.

• Training on data is focused on specific positions already working with data. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'partially' if you find evidence of training that addresses technical roles, but it is not as widespread as training for non-technical roles.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide an explanation for your answer and supporting urls if needed.

• Specific features:

• Training is planned by an established training team, department, or agency. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No or Partially or Yes: Who is in charge of planning the trainings?

• Public servants receive a certification when taking a training so there is a formal recognition as a professional development. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: What kind of certification do they receive?

Extent

• How widespread, in terms of agencies and ministries, are the trainings assessed for this question?

  • The training assessed is available to one or more agencies or ministries, but there are many other agencies or ministries without such training.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The training assessed is representative of the kind of training that can be found for all, or most, agencies or ministries.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

• How widespread, in terms of jurisdictions, are trainings assessed for this question?

  • Assessed training involves sub-national or local public servants of one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such trainings.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • Assessed trainings involve sub-national or local public servants, and are representative examples of the kind of trainings that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • Assessed trainings involve national public servants.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Data literacy for public servants is a precondition for governments working toward using data for public good. The World Bank's 2021 Data for Better Lives highlights civil servants' data skills as a key component for effective data governance, stating that "institutions can only carry out their roles effectively if their staff are capable of and willing to use good data to undertake their core operations, inform policies, and deliver services... Governing data thus requires a strong technical capacity and investments in human capital development for those who collect, process, analyze, and use data to support evidence-based policy making, core government operations, and service delivery"(World Bank 2021).

Similarly, the OECD notes that skilled and motivated public servants are the foundation for an effective and sustainable open data policy, and key for achieving a data-driven public sector that governs and manages data as a strategic asset to create public value (OECD 2020).

For data literacy, public servants need ongoing training, either to learn basic skills to effectively govern, manage, and share data, or to improve and update existing skills. Training programs, therefore, should target different audiences among government officials: some should focus more broadly on civil servants who work with different types of content, while other should focus on improving the skills of those in data-specific positions.