The data.europa academy helps you become data literate
Publication Date/Time
2021-10-29T11:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
Interested in learning the basics about open data? Aiming to step up
to the next level of high-quality data publication? Curious about
geospatial data, open licences or metadata vocabularies? Or wondering
how to become more data literate?
The data.europa academy can help you to become more knowledgeable
about open data and to become more data literate. It provides you with
knowledge and tools to publish high-quality open data that lives up to
legal and technical standards, whether you are an expert or just
getting started. Through the academy you can also discover how to
create impact by re-using different types of open data.

In the academy you can learn about publishing and finding open data,
interoperability standards, regulatory and technical requirements, or
recommendations. Additionally, the data.europa academy covers topics
related to open data re-use, such as best practices and measuring open
data impact.

In the curriculum of the academy, you find a description of all
available courses. They are offered in varying set-ups and cover a
wide range of topics. Learning materials are presented in different
formats, for example (online) training courses, workshops, reading
materials, tools and videos. 

To help you find the right course, the curriculum is structured along
four themes: policy, impact, technology, and quality. These four
themes cover a variety of topics considered to be essential for open
data publication and re-use and are also used to benchmark
country-level development in data.europa.eu’s annual Open Data
Maturity [https://data.europa.eu/en/dashboard/2020] assessment. The
next edition of this assessment will be published in December. 

To stay up to date with the latest insights and best practices, the
academy curriculum is constantly updated with new courses and learning
materials. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/DS_4.1_1.png]

WHY DATA LITERACY MATTERS

As we all know, more and more data are available. Therefore, more than
ever, it is important to be able to interpret data and draw the right
insights from it. This capacity is called “data literacy”. The
concept is defined by Gartner (2021) as “the ability to read, write
and communicate data in context, including an understanding of data
sources and constructs, analytical methods and techniques applied, and
the ability to describe the use case, application and resulting
value.”1
[https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/a-data-and-analytics-leaders-guide-to-data-literacy] Data
literacy is an important skill in public and private organisations.
Data-driven decision-making is found to improve public services2
[https://www.sipotra.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/A-data-driven-public-sector-Enabling-the-strategic-use-of-data-for-productive-inclusive-and-trustworthy-governance.pdf] and
business performance3 [http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1819486]. The
importance of achieving a data-driven public sector is highlighted by
the OECD (2019) as it is stated that “using data as a strategic
asset is crucial for governments to boost public sector intelligence
and, as a result, increase the capability of developing policies and
services that are sustainable in the long-term and as inclusive and
trusted as possible.”4
[https://www.sipotra.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/A-data-driven-public-sector-Enabling-the-strategic-use-of-data-for-productive-inclusive-and-trustworthy-governance.pdf]

Public and private organisations consider data literacy as an
important skill as data-driven decision-making can improve public
services5
[https://www.sipotra.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/A-data-driven-public-sector-Enabling-the-strategic-use-of-data-for-productive-inclusive-and-trustworthy-governance.pdf] and
business performance6 [http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1819486]. The
OECD stated for example in 2019 that “using data as a strategic
asset is crucial for governments to boost public sector intelligence
and, as a result, increase the capability of developing policies and
services that are sustainable in the long-term and as inclusive and
trusted as possible.”7
[https://www.sipotra.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/A-data-driven-public-sector-Enabling-the-strategic-use-of-data-for-productive-inclusive-and-trustworthy-governance.pdf]

_“The application of data in government has almost limitless
potential for providing more efficient, effective and trustworthy
public services”, OECD (2019)_8
[https://doi.org/10.1787/059814a7-en]

Similarly, the private sector also benefits from improved data
literacy. For example, research by Brynjolfsson, Hitt & Kim (2011) on
179 large publicly traded firms found that “firms that adopt
data-driven decision-making have output and productivity that is 5-6%
higher than would be expected given their other investments and
information technology usage. Furthermore, the relationship between
data-driven decisions and performance also appears in other
performance measures such as asset utilization, return on equity and
market value."9 [http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1819486]

Research by the Capgemini Research Institute (2020) amongst 1004
organisations shows that, despite great efforts, only 16% of
organisations have the tools, technologies, people, processes, skills,
and culture to successfully derive value from growing volumes of
data.10
[https://www.capgemini.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Data-powered-enterprise_Digital_Report.pdf]

The data.europa academy aims to address this lack of data literacy. It
will support you whether you are a data provider, civil servant,
business owner or simply interested in data to become more data
literate. 

Explore the academy [https://data.europa.eu/en/academy] and give us
your feedback [https://data.europa.eu/en/feedback/form]!
