The ever increasing volume of data brings opportunities to create value and drive informed decision making. However, maximising the value of data relies on access to the right people with the right skills.
A new report by Nesta focuses on the availability of skills required to create, analyse and apply the lessons learned from data.
The researchers analysed responses from over 400 UK-based middle- to large-sized companies in six sectors (creative media; financial services; ICT; manufacturing; pharma; retail). They then segmented the companies into four types of company, depending on the strategies they adopt when dealing with data.
The four data groups
Datavores account for 16% of the companies and are already making strong use of data and data analysis for decision making
Data Builders (22%) are using big datasets
Data Mixers (31%) collect and combine data from a variety of sources.
Dataphobes (30%) work with small datasets and few data sources, and do not use data or analysis to make decisions.
Key findings
- Data-active companies perform better than the Dataphobes.
- Data-active companies are recruiting more analysts, and combining more disciplines to build a data science capability.
- Two thirds of Datavore companies reported they had struggled to fill at least one vacancy
- In particular, companies are struggling to find people who combine domain knowledge with data skills.
Training data skills
Companies are investing in training for their data analysts. 80% of respondents conduct internal training and a significant number are adopting innovative training methods such as data competitions, MOOCs and meetups.
The full report is available here.