Intro to Data Science
Audience:
This course is designed for anyone seeking a foundational introduction to data science and how it connects to their day‑to‑day work. It’s suitable for both early‑career professionals and experienced staff who want to build, refresh, or strengthen their data science skills.
Duration: 2 Days
Delivery: Virtual (4 half days) or in-person (2 full days)
Course description:
We work in environments saturated with information, far more than organizations have ever had to manage before. It is increasingly important for policy leaders, analysts, and program managers to understand how data science can strengthen decision‑making. Data science skills are now highly valued across government, non‑profit, and business sectors. With the right foundation, we can forecast trends, identify emerging behaviours, uncover patterns, inform policy, and extract meaning from the continuous flow of data in our workplaces.
This course gives participants a solid grounding in core data science concepts, how to apply them in daily work, and how to adopt a data‑oriented mindset.
Programming and statistical skills are not essential.
Course overview:
Data Insight Fundamentals
Data Collection and Data Management
Data Exploration and Visualization
Data Processing and Data Preparation
Basic Data Analysis
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
Explain the core concepts of data science and how they apply to everyday analytical work
Understand how data is collected, managed, and structured across organizational systems
Explore and visualize data to identify trends, patterns, and emerging behaviours
Prepare and process raw data to make it suitable for analysis and decision‑making
Apply basic analytical techniques to interpret information and generate meaningful insights
Describe the fundamentals of machine learning and artificial intelligence in clear, non‑technical terms
Recognize how data science supports forecasting, policy development, operational improvement, and strategic decision‑making
Adopt a data‑oriented mindset that strengthens critical thinking and evidence‑based reasoning