TRAINING

There are a variety of self-assessment tools available to help assess the data literacy of your staff and your government. The Statistics Canada article “Data Literacy: What it is and how to measure it in the public service” lists several assessment tools, including:

• my Databilities
• Data Literacy Project
• Data literacy maturity model assessment tool from Datenschule

Many online training websites provide free or low-cost general-level training in data governance and management. Some options include:

• LinkedIn Learning has over 14,000 courses on business, software, technology, and creative skills. Subscriptions provide unlimited access to their course library. Individual subscriptions are $24.99-$34.99/month as of May 2020. Package subscriptions for organizations are available. A few examples of topics related to data governance and management include:
  • Overview courses on data governance and data management.
  • Courses on data management activities such as data retention, data storage, and data security.
  • Spreadsheet and data analysis software such as Excel, Tableau, Power BI, SAS, SPSS, and R.
  • Data management systems software such as Microsoft Access and Google Forms.
• Coursera.org provides access to online post-secondary courses from international universities and industry educators. Much of the course content is available free of charge.

The First Nations Public Service Secretariat runs two-day Management Training Academies for Records and Information Management.

The First Nations Information Governance Centre has an online training program on the Fundamentals of OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, and Privacy).

The US Geological Survey website has several publicly available training modules on data management.

The Province of BC Information Security Awareness website provides introductory level materials designed for the public on information security.

The province of British Columbia offers a free online training self-directed course on information security.

For hands-on training, consider the possibility of an eligible staff or community member joining the Indspire Research Knowledge Nest Research Assistant Program. This is a twelve-month paid placement for Indigenous students and recent graduates to gain hands-on experience in data analysis, research, and much more. Program participants gain valuable skills that would support many SGIGs objectives.

Statistics Canada provides several training courses and workshops on acquiring and working with data. Indigenous trainers may be available for some courses.

• The Statistics Canada Centre for Indigenous Statistics and Partnerships: The Aboriginal Statistics Program is developing an online platform to host new training modules. Contact Kory Goulais goulais@canada.ca or Annie Turner annie.turner@canada.ca for information about course delivery.
• The Statistics Canada Data Literacy Training Products are a series of free training videos on topics such as data visualization, data stewardship, data analysis, data terminology, data quality, and gathering data.
• The Statistics Canada Statistical Consultation Group provides training programs on analysis, data interpretation, questionnaire design, statistical sampling, and quality control. These courses are generally offered in person, in Ottawa, and based on demand. In some circumstances, instructors travel to different locations to provide the training. These courses may also be offered virtually in the future. As of November 2020, the training programs are available at $200 per day.
• The Statistics Canada regional offices offer workshops on topics such as basic statistics, use of census data, survey methods, understanding and interpreting data, and development and design of survey questionnaires.

Status of Women Canada offers a free online course on Gender Based Analysis Plus that can help you decide which subsets of the population to generate or report indicators for. Gender Based Analysis Plus is a tool for understanding how policies, programs, and initiatives impact different subsets of the population.

The Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) is an Indigenous Centre of Excellence in BC. NVIT offers a Community Analysis course that highlights how data can be collected and analyzed to help community economic development officers clarify challenges and opportunities.

It is important that individuals within your government understand your government’s data management policies, processes, and practices.

Consider implementing a security and privacy awareness training program to promote a culture of security awareness amongst staff. Training can include instruction on:

• Common threats and impacts to business.
• Clean desk policies.
• Locking inactive systems.
• Concealing valuables.
• Risks associated with sharing credentials.
• Avoiding exposing your government to email and online scams.
• Reporting security incidents.

Security and privacy awareness training should be conducted on an annual basis and form a key component of the data management plan (see Data Management for further details).