The Data Skills Gateway is part of the Edinburgh & South East Scotland (ESES) City Region Deal’s skills and employability programme, and aims to help organisations and all our citizens benefit from the data revolution.
The Data Skills Gateway is working across all education sectors – schools, colleges, universities and in work, vocational training providers – to ensure that all citizens of the Edinburgh city region have opportunities to improve and enhance their data skills.
This includes people of all backgrounds and social groups, people with disabilities and other challenges, and people with all levels of previous education. It also includes girls in school who might be put off by the frequently male-dominated image of the technology sector, people returning to the workforce after a break, or anyone who combines work with caring for family members or friends. It also includes people whose roles are changing and who may now face redundancy.
The Data Skills Gateway is also linked with the City Region Deal’s Data Driven Innovation (DDI) initiative, a network representing the regional capabilities of six innovation hubs across the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, supported by the world-class Edinburgh International Data Facility. Find out more about the wider DDI programme here.
The inclusion of DDI with the City Region Deal reflects the growing importance of data in economic growth, social change, and public services. Through high-speed data analytics, our ability to capture flows of data and understand what they tell us is bringing better and faster capability to identify trends and behaviour across many sectors, leading to improved services for consumers and citizens.
The 2019 review of Scotland’s Digital Skills and Technologies from Skills Development Scotland highlighted that, of the emerging technologies of the future, big data and data analytics skills are anticipated to be the most in demand.
