ODC join Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication’s workshop on capacity building for all post and telecommunication departments (Phase 2)

Picture from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication facebook page on 28 April 2023.

From 25th April to 27th May 2023, The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications organized a series of workshops with the aim of providing capacity building to subnational government officers from all its provincial departments in Cambodia.

Via partnership with the Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT) to conduct Data Literacy Training for government officials (as part of CADT’s Digital Essential Skill program) Open Development Cambodia (ODC)’s trainers – Mr. Vong Pisith, senior data research and GIS officer, and Mr. Ban Chanphalla, Social Development Editor / Researcher – were invited as speakers for a “Data Literacy” sharing session.

Picture from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication facebook page on 28 April 2023.

The workshop is in line with one of Open Development Cambodia (ODC)’s key activities, its Capacity Building and Training program. ODC recognizes the growing needs and vital role of building capacity for digital skills in order to keep up with the current trend of digital transformation, and has initiated and implemented digital training on Data Literacy, GIS, and Data Visualization training. The training is provided to various stakeholders, including government officials, CSOs, journalists, citizen journalists, researchers, students, and citizens.

The workshops were conducted in four provinces: 25-27th April 2023 in Siem Reap, 9-11th May 2023 in Pailin, 16-18th May 2023 in Kampong Thom, and 25-27th May 2023 in Preah Sihanouk. Three main themes were introduced in these intensive workshops: Connectivity and Quality of Service, the Digital Transformation Program of the Government, Industry 4.0 and Emerging Technology. (Data Literacy is under the Industry 4.0 and Emerging Technology theme.)

This Data Literacy session aimed to give a simple snapshot of what data is. The participants could gain an overview and insight into the flow of data literacy as a roadmap to shape and advance their current roles. Most participants were enthused by this content and aspired to pursue this skill further.

In the sharing session, ODC trainers delivered content such as:

  1. Understanding data: focus on actual data that can be used for the downstream processes rather than talk about its ambiguous definition. Commonly used data in tabular structure and formats such as CSV and Excel.
  2. Data collection: focus on a basic survey and finding data online. The basic survey provides an overview of questionnaire design and instructions on producing a good questionnaire.
  3. Finding data online: focus on the use of Google Advanced Search to effectively find resources and the use of the data portals to explore data
  4. Data cleaning: focus on the understanding of data standards and the techniques for cleaning a tabular dataset.
  5. Data analysis: focus on the flow of data analysis, the prerequisites to analyzing data, and a demo using MS Excel.
  6. Data visualization: focus on defining the purpose of visualization, choosing the right chart, and practice in MS Excel.

Picture from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication facebook page on 28 April 2023.

Besides the content of the current data literacy session, it is also important to update the participant about the latest advancement in digital technology. ODC trainers also took the opportunity to introduce the latest technological innovation of ChatGPT and demo its use to the participants. The participants were enormously interested in this technology and eager to learn more as it seems to promise the improvement of their work.