Partnership between national statistics offices and academics to increase official statistical literacy

Abstract

Statistics New Zealand is actively involved in raising the statistical capability of key groups of users. Current priority groups are government, the media and Maori (indigenous New Zealand) and, in the recent past, schools and small businesses. Initiatives designed to support statistical literacy development include synthetic unit record files (SURFs), confidentialized unit record files (CURFs), postgraduate student work placements, funding for the CensusAtSchool project, a National Certificate of Official Statistics for public sector staff, and an honours/masters paper in official statistics. Almost all the educational initiatives implemented so far have been developed collaboratively with educational institutions through a network of academics in official statistics (NAOS) established in 2006. Members have been involved in the design, implementation, delivery and assessment of courses for qualification as well as presenting short (one- or two-day) courses for government employees on topics such as ethics and legislation, interpreting opinion polls and demography. A particular focus of this paper is the postgraduate course in Official Statistics introduced in 2011. This used advanced video-conferencing with teach- ing staff and students at five New Zealand universities. The course has been beneficial for Statistics New Zealand, universities and students. Feedback from students is also reported.