The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced that 61 federal employees graduated from its data science upskilling program after undergoing training between Sept. 2020 and Jan. 2021, Federal News Network reported Friday.
The Federal Data Science program provides agencies an opportunity to address gaps in critical skills by hiring and onboarding new talent, meet the Federal Data Strategy’s goals and fill in-demand jobs by establishing professional development opportunities for the existing workforce.
From July through August 2020, 20 agencies nominated names for the upskilling program. The coursework exposed the first cohort of federal participants to 21 different job series. An official with OMB said graduates are “returning to their regular duties with a deeper understanding of, and competencies with, data science tools and techniques.”
“They will be able to use those to address current and future challenges, unique to each of their agencies. They have been challenged to share what they have learned with their leaders and peers, increasing awareness of the value data science acumen brings to their organization and the federal government,” the OMB official added.
OMB used the lessons learned from its Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy and the Census Bureau’s training initiative to help come with the data science upskilling program in August 2020.
