Distance Education
IBGE offers course on statistics on UN's digital learning platform
June 08, 2020 02h00 PM | Last Updated: June 15, 2020 06h00 PM
The National School of Statistical Sciences (ENCE), IBGE's college, is offering the course "Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics" on the UN SDG: Learn platform, a portal of the United Nations (UN), which offers a series of learning initiatives related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The course, which will be the first distance learning program made available by ENCE on the platform, is open for enrollment starting today (8). The application deadline is June 19.
The IBGE is the first national statistical office to offer courses on that platform. The course will be offered in Portuguese for 50 students. “The goal is for the students to be able to recognize the fundamental principles of official statistics and reflect upon their application in their work routines”, says IBGE Coordinator of Training and Capacity Building Bianca Walsh.
She adds that, besides the fundamental principles of official statistics, the program includes the code of best practices and of the IBGE civil servants. “That is because some principles are related to ethical issues, as the matter of data confidentiality, for instance. So it is a course that, despite focusing on statistical literacy in a broad way, contributes very much to current debates on the role of statistical institutes, especially of the IBGE.”
The course does not require previous knowledge on the matter, lasts 17 hours and can be done within a maximum two-month time. According to Ms. Walsh, any interested person can apply, but the usual audience, as in the SIDRA courses, comprises researchers, media professionals and decision-makers.
Three classroom courses are already being offered by ENCE
The UN platform is also used in three classroom courses offered by ENCE. "Social indicators for public programs and policies" and "Assessing public programs and policies" are focused on information analysis and application for the design of public policies and improvement of government initiatives, while the "Course on Developing Survey Skills (CDHP)" deals with the elaboration and conduction of a household sample survey.
For the coordinator, offering the course is relevant to the IBGE because it reflects one of the three main goals of the strategic map in force at the institution. “The third of these objectives is to strengthen knowledge dissemination. One of our missions as producers of official statistics is to disseminate how necessary and important they are through the principles that characterize them and differentiate them from other statistical productions, which are relevant as well, but of a different nature”, says Ms. Walsh.
The initiative stems from IBGE's work in the Global Network of Institutions for Statistical Training (GIST), which joins other institutions for training aimed at the production and use of quality statistical data.
For Dr. Pedro Nascimento, professor at ENCE, continued professional training in topics related to the production and use of official statistics is very important for all statistical institutes, since a great part of the labor force required by these institutes does not find specific training in the universities in most countries.
“In addition, even when people have some specific training in statistics or similar areas, they do not have all the necessary training to work in this type of institution and production. So it is very relevant that professional development training tools are available to help these people develop skills and acquire the necessary knowledge so that they can perform their tasks well in the scope of the production and use of official statistics ”, says the professor, who represented the IBGE at GIST until 2019.
Founded in 1953, ENCE is a federal institution of higher education that belongs to the IBGE. The school is responsible for the survey activities, qualification and training of IBGE civil servants. In addition, ENVE also offers training at three education levels (bachelor courses, specialization courses and Master's and PhD programs).
“ENCE plays a very important role: it prepares people for society, for the country, but it also plays the role of guaranteeing to IBGE continuous professional training and the development so that its servants can perform well in the institution ”, highlights Dr. Nascimento.
