Data Science certificates awarded to employees of Ministry IenW
On Monday, June 24th, 24 employees of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) received their certificates for completing Data Science courses, offered by the Leiden Centre of Data Science.
Inspector-General Jan van den Bos handed out the certificates to 14 participants of the technical track and 10 of the managerial track.
In his speech, Van den Bos addressed his ideas of years ago, when he underestimated the impact of data and IT. During the last years, however, he realized that the development of data and data-driven policy is much more challenging and laborious than other innovations.
Rearrange the working standards
There are two new developments that draw our attention, he said. Firstly, we are forced to build up a completely new and appropriate body of knowledge and skills. Second, we have to understand that our work is changing drastically, and that we have to rearrange the working standards used so far with the help of new technical findings. You, he said to the alumni, will be the guides for our Ministry.
Successful collaboration
One of the participants responded right away, and underlined how inspiring the lectures had been. For instance, he and his colleagues were very impressed by the lecture given by Barend Mons about data science in general and Go-FAIR in particular.
The courses were part of the successful collaboration between IenW and Leiden University, aimed at allowing IenW to make better use of data when addressing societal issues.