OECD Report - Building digital workforce capacity and skills for data-intensive science (2020)

As a lead contributor to the OECD's Building Digital Workforce Capacity and Skills for Data-Intensive Science (2020) report, Dr Michelle Barker outlines in this presentation the goal of the report, i.e. to make recommendations to policy makers on how to facilitate the digital workforce capacity needed for data-intensive science, based on analysis of best practice.

The presentation highlights:

• Digital workforce capacity and COVID19: the importance of digital skills, the need for shared access to open data, software and code, and the shortfall in skills to enable a comprehensive response to such emergencies

• The ongoing need for a digital skilled workforce for data-intensive science

• Five focus areas in the report include:

1. Enablers for digital workforce capacity development

2. Defining needs: digital skills, frameworks and roles

3. Provision of training

4. Community development

5. Career paths and reward structures - Recommendations for actors incl. universities, national or regional governments