Objectives
An essential element of statistical capacity - the ability to prepare and publish statistics of good quality - is the availability of people who are trained to use, analyse, produce and manage statistics.
The European Community has a comparative advantage in operating in development statistics at regional level, a view supported by the European Consensus (see link).
Statistical training is often implemented at the regional level, due both to the economies of scale and the usefulness of common training in statistics concepts to regional harmonisation.
As a result, Eurostat has for many years been closely involved in the European Community's statistical training activities in developing countries. Eurostat's role is to provide technical advice to the external services of the European Commission. This role includes supporting the development of new approaches to statistics training, focussing on how to use statistics training and education most effectively.
The 2006/2007 'Evaluation of the Commission Support for Statistics in Third Countries' suggested that the following are aspects of good practice in statistical training projects:
- Short training sessions (in-country or organised as multi-country workshops) proved useful especially for people already trained;
- Longer-term on-the-job training permitted effective transfer of know-how;
- Training of trainers had a positive impact on sustainability.
Eurostat considers that training should not be confined to technical statistics subjects but also needs to cover management, explanation and data dissemination. Training in analysing and using statistics is of value for decision makers and other stakeholders.
Eurostat's approach is to help identify the demand for statistics-related training and to encourage training to meet this demand.
Activities
Eurostat currently is involved in two main activities in the field of statistics training:
- SADC Regional Statistics Training Programme and Programme 2010;
- ASTRA - Assessment of Statistical Training management information system.
The SADC Regional Statistics Training Programme 2010, which focuses in in-service training, is described more fully on the Eastern and Southern Africa page.
Eurostat has initiated a project to develop materials to support National Statistics Institutes and other statistics producers to measure their training requirements, and to support developing country educational and training institutions to measure the demand for their statistics training services from all sources.
The ASTRA (Assessment of Statistical Training) management information system is the resulting tool. It is intended to be compatible with National Statistics Development Strategies. ASTRA materials are available on the Eurostat CIRCA site (see link).
