Funding

 

We fund providers to deliver innovative data skills training programmes. We support individuals to upskill and reskill, and employers to develop their workforce and increase managerial understanding of data science, machine learning and AI.

 
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Data Skills Credits – for providers

Funding for training and education providers. Get up to £10,000 for the delivery of digital and data upskilling courses to support learners in our target groups. 

Background 

Since launching our Data Skills Credits small grants scheme in 2020, Data Skills for Work at The Data Lab has supported over 900 learners to access digital and data short courses, delivered by our trusted network of training and education partners.    

 

1000

Learners benefited

68%

Identify as women

24%

Ethnic minority

 

What we want to achieve 

Our core objective is to benefit working adults who want to upskill themselves in data to address the demands of the changing world of work. We want to ensure the region has the workforce skills to underpin a strong digital economy, drive improved economic performance and inclusion across the region and to influence the acceleration to Net Zero through digital skills to help with carbon management.   

We want to partner with training and education providers who can offer data upskilling short courses to learners who belong to learner in our target groups, which includes: women, people with a disability, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and neurodivergent individuals. 

Data Skills Credits funding available in 2024-25 

Our funding programmes will support learners in Edinburgh & South East Scotland and in the Tay Cities Region.

Apply now! Deadline for applications is Monday 29th April at 5pm.

We use Submittable as our application platform, the link below will take you to an external website datalab.submittable.com. Please carefully read our Funding Guidance Document within the application form.

For Edinburgh & South East Scotland

For Tay Cities Region

For more information on our funding or if you would like to discuss the call before making an application, please contact us.

Data Skills Framework

Data Skills Credits are designed to help learners to develop data citizen, data worker and data professional skills. Through our work and research with employers in the city region, we have created a Data Skills Framework, which identifies the following data skills gaps: 

  • Learning at Data Citizen level should introduce individuals to the fundamentals of data science, its key concepts and equip them with an ability to carry out basic tasks. For example, effective Data Management, Data Ethics, Data Protection. 

  • At Data Worker level, learners should be able to apply statistics, programming and analysis skills to datasets from their organisation to answer questions. There is potential for training contextualised with in specific sectors, looking at data analytics and management/governance in the context of, for instance, retail, marketing, tourism, financial services, or the third sector. 

  • At Data Professional level, employers have identified a need for communication skills for technical roles, as well as AI & Machine Learning and Data Engineering skills.