What skills will we need in the future?

[CAM]

Just something I've been wondering about. What sort of skills do you think we will need in the future as data managers that are worth learning now?

 

For example, there has been a lot of talk about "Big Data" recently and technologies like Hadoop to replace smaller databases. Do you think we will ever see it's use in tracking results over a federation of schools for example? (or even one school!)

[LosOjos]

I personally feel that the role of the Data Manager has not yet been defined in schools. Talking to other Data Managers, it's clear that there's huge variety in the role school to school.

 

Because of this, it's hard to predict what skills we need. Theoretically, a Data Manager should be able to perform all the tasks they need from within their school's MIS or Excel, but we all know that barely scratches the surface. As these things develop, I think we'll start to see schools having data teams rather than individuals, as the more complex and large scale it gets, the more skill sets will be required to maintain it all. I envisage it coming to a point where at a minimum schools have:

 

- Data Systems Manager (possibly a part time roll performed by an existing IT tech) responsible for administering, installing and even developing systems to be used by data teams to produce and present data in whatever format is required

- Data Admin Manager - using the systems put in place by the Data Systems Manager to produce data in a format suitable for the purpose with relevant statistics to go with it

 

We're already in a similar model here, where I see myself as doing both of the above with admin assistance from my shared assistant and my boss.

 

In terms of what can we do to give ourselves a head start right now:

- make sure you're Excel and Access skills are top notch

- find out everything you can about what makes your MIS tick (what data and how can you import/export? How much of the analysis work can your MIS do for you? What tools can you utilise within your MIS?)

- polish up your statistics skills and really study your data to make sure you understand what the figures say, not just what they are (i.e. we can easily produce a %5 A*-C, but how is that useful to teaching staff/SLT?)

- keep an eye on any developments from the DfE so you can at least mentally prepare yourself for upcoming changes

- share anything you find useful here so we can all benefit from each other's experiences

[QWERTY72]

I agree with LosOjos that the role of the Data Manager is different from school to school and it will quite possibly be covered by a group of people, but I doubt that it would be called a "data team" or be in fact a dedicated data team (don't see our school getting the financial resources for that). So for instance in our school we have somebody dealing with all the attendance data, somebody else is dealing with the admission procedures and first data input onto SIMS, somebody else is doing the census, whilst I as the Data (and Exams) Officer deal with the assessment part of the data according to guidelines from SLT and our IT technician is dealing with the server and software updates etc.

The skills I am trying to aquire are the various modules of SIMS, so that not only do I know how they impact on each other, but I try to get a working knowledge so that I could potentially made be responsible for a wider field of action and become more indispensable.

SLT supports me in this and I found Course Manager and now System Manager particular useful to know.

[NormalDistribution]

Exactly what @LosOjos says.

 

A lot of it depends on the role which was chosen in the school for the Data Manager to be borne out of.

 

This is why on my travels I meet Data & Exams Managers, Data & Cover Managers, IT & Data Managers, Systems & Data Managers, Senior Leaders with Data and Assessment responsibilities.

 

Historically this was because schools had MIS and such like because it was a requirement to administer certain tasks, i.e. Census (PLASC), Attendance, Results. Whole School Data Analysis was often something that was done to the school, or for the school, increasingly with diminishing local authorities schools need to do this for themselves and have since found the power that unlocking vital data and using it effectively to improve learning can have.

 

My ideas on some traits Data Managers will need for the future:

 

- Flexibiilty - don't tie yourself into any one system/way of working for too long and make sure you are competent in analysing data both inside and outrside of your MIS. The national landscape changes so quickly that sometimes you can't afford to wait for the system you are using to catch up. Do it yourself instead.

 

- Develop Networks - keep in touch with other DMs. Often you are doing exactly the same thing. Share good practice.

 

- Report Writing

 

- Management Skills - most places I know are gradually expanding their Data people into teams, you might not be an island for ever!

 

Big Data is interesting, but will it go mainstream in schools? Hard to say. Perhaps could have some value in larger academy chains, if local authorities ever get to expand again I guess, but for a standalone school I can't see it working... or rather I could see it working but I couldn't see widespread staff engagement with it. At the moment anyway.

 

 

 

 

I'm a big fan of this quote:

Without question, the issues we face to-day are challenging, but they are solvable. Palmisano is optimistic, he says, because we now have at our disposal an enormous new natural resource, a rising tide of data that enables us to see and understand our world as never before. "What the discovery of the Western hemisphere was to the 15^th century, the discovery of steam power to the 18^th century and the discovery of electricity to the 19^th century, the explosion of data will be to the 21^st. Its economic and societal value is almost incalculable. If we seize upon this new resource, I believe future historians will look back on this moment not as a shift to lower expectations and growing gaps between haves and have-nots, but as the dawn of a new golden age of innovation, a time of widely shared economic growth and of global citizenship.

 

Sam Palmisano, Chairman of IBM