Evaluation of National Data Skills pilots: Final report

The National Data Skills project is funded by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture & Sport (DCMS), through the Office for Students, and provides funding for an exploration of practice by universities in enabling higher education students to develop foundational data skills. The focus is on provision for undergraduates who are studying courses without a significant data science element ('non-cognate students').

This programme follows the OfS’s work on the DCMS-funded postgraduate conversion course programme, which offers flexible learning provision in AI and Data Science, including scholarships aimed at students from underrepresented backgrounds, to support fair access and to address the data skills gap.

This final report, from the Careers Research & Advisory Centre (CRAC), summarises findings of the National Data Skills project. It includes an international evidence review to identify how providers within and beyond the UK teach data skills to non-cognate students, as well as the emerging findings from the pilot projects undertaken at seven UK universities. The seven pilot projects received funding from October 2021 to March 2022 and concluded delivery of their funded activity in May 2022.