1. Statistical education in times of Big Data
Markus Zwick
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics
New Techniques and Technologies for Statistics
March 2017, Brussels

2. Statistical Education in times of Big Data
Context
Permanent growth of accessible digital data
Arising needs for development of statistical education
Data Scientists and iStatisticians wanted/needed
EMOS - common solution to the new challenges
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

3. What are the target groups for statistical education?
Pupils, students, professionals
Data producer, data manager
Data users, analysts, decision maker
Data scientists, iStatistician
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

4. What are the instruments to teach statistics?
Traditional methods like front teaching
E-learning
Webinars
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
Blended learning
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

5. Transformation of the statistician’s profile: the Data Scientist
Competences
Analytical and computing skills
Delivering quality and ethical analyses
Process management skills
Communication skills
Developing analytical expertise
To summarise, the new role of the statistical officer will more concentrate on:
• Development of statistical indicators
• Design and co-ordination of data collection with Member States
• Standardisation of processes, products and methods, with increased use of new technologies such as cloud computing
• User oriented development of statistical products
• Use of big data, open data, cloud data and data from administrative sources ("the iStatistician")
• Use of warehouse data and less tailor-made products ("warehouse quality guardian")
• Statistical audit and labelling of official statistics ("the statistical auditor")
Some of the new competencies (soft skills) needed would be marketing, narrative skills, sociability, service orientation, anticipation of user's need, ability to adapt to a changing world and corporate thinking.
More on: DM doc on statistical officers & assistants
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

6. The Data Scientist will be a team with specialized member skills
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

7. Big Data Team Level Competency
Team work
Interpersonal and communication
Delivery of results
Innovation and contextual awareness
Specialist knowledge and expertise
Statistical/IT skills
Data Analytical/ Visualisation skills
Competency profiles have been created by the UNECE High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

8. Big Data Team Leader Level Competency
Leadership and Strategic Direction
Judgement and decision-making
Management and delivery of results
Building relationships and communication
Specialist knowledge and expertise
Statistical/IT skills
Data Analytical/ Visualisation skills
Competency profiles have been created by the UNECE High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

9. Teamwork Challenges
How to teach teamwork and interdisciplinary approaches?
How well are the NSIs prepared to work in these teams?
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

10. NSIs and universities Educating the next generation of statisticians
Improving the curriculum by including more aspects of new digital sources
Improving the statistical literacy for the data user side
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

11. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cros/content/emos_en
Emos Learning outcomes
Elective courses
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

12. European Master of Official Statistics
Concrete but not enough
Network of universities and data producers
A vehicle for an ongoing training inside the NSIs
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

13. European Master in Official Statistics
"The main goal of this project is to establish a quality label for university 'European Official Statistics' programmes that meet agreed standards in education. University programmes that are benchmarked to these standards become members of the 'European Official Statistics' network." Ex-Ante Evaluation Document for the project, May 2011.
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

14. Educational Strategies for NSIs
New concepts for education of data producers and data users
Early development of statistical literacy
„Census at School“ - American Statistical Association
„Briniging Data to Life in the Classroom“ – Australian Bureau of Statistics
EMOS
ESTP
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

15. Future Prospects and Solutions
Permanent training concepts inside the NSIs
EMOS idea: Introductory statistic courses and PhD programmes
ESS degree for proffesional statisticians: „Graduate Statistician“ of the Royal Statistical Society
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics

16. Literature
Ridgway J (2015) Implications of the Data Revolution for Statistics Education. International Statistical Review (2015), 0, 0, 1–22. doi: /insr
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Human Resources Management and Training - Compilation of Good Practices in Statistical Offices, 2013
S. Forbes, M. Camden, N. Pihama, P. Bucknall and M. Pfannkuch, Official Statistics and statistical literacy: They need each other, Statistical Journal of the IAOS, (2011) issue 27
T.H. Davenport and D.J, Patil, Data Scientist. The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century, Harvard Business Review, October 2012
UNECE High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics, 2016

17. Thank you for your attention!
Federal Statistical Office Germany, Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics