Government selects 5 Data Fellows from APS

The federal government has selected five public service data specialists for intense coaching under the inaugural Data Fellowship program.

Employees at the Departments of Treasury and Finance, the AFP and the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics have won the opportunity to provide high-level training to address data-related issues from the CSIRO’s Data61 or its partner organisations.

One of the selected public servants is Alex Kelly, an employee at the Department of Treasury in Canberra.

Kelly will undertake a three-month placement with Data61 to develop a new indicator on household spending using social media resources. Data on trends including travel, retail, home and car sales will be used to provide a real-time indicator of household consumption.

The other 2016 Data Fellows are Treasury’s Audrey Lobo-Pulo, the Department of Finance’s Yingsong Hu, AFP’s Janis Dalins and the Bureau of Infrastructure’s Thomas Rutherford.

Each year the government plans to select up to 10 APS employees to participate in the program.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for the Data Fellows to develop their skills and work alongside some of Australia’s best researchers and engineers,” Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation Angus Taylor said.

“We view this as both a reward for some of our top staff and a development opportunity for their future.”

The program forms part of the federal Data Skills and Capability in the APS Framework — a series of initiatives designed to enhance data skills among the APS. The government is also encouraging public servants to undertake tertiary courses on data literacy.

Image courtesy of Chris Hood under CC