Statistics education, training and the workplace
Convenors
- Gabriella Belli (United States)
- Peter Petocz (Australia)
Abstract
Professionals working in many different areas are faced with the need to gather, process, analyze, interpret and/or report on data as part of their job. The use of statistical thinking, methods and tools is a necessary part of work in areas such as business, economics, government, law, politics and science, as well as for society at large. In the current workplace, more sophisticated and complex analyses are possible with a proliferation of desktop software. Workers and professionals, however, have diverse educational backgrounds with respect to these statistical tools and techniques. Many did not have the proper education and training required to perform these tasks with confidence and efficiency.The size of the statistical literature is vast, the impact of technology (communications and computing, in particular) on the methods and practices is substantial, and no single individual can aim to master all that is happening. Hence even statistically literate professionals who had their education in the past will need to revise their training and update their practice to continually learn about new ideas, techniques and approaches that appear, which may question or improve upon previous behavior and methods. These two sets of circumstances pose a substantial challenge to those who need statistical thinking, methods and tools for their professional performance. Continued statistics education and training is a worthy goal to be pursued, and a substantial part of this must occur at the workplace.
The aim of this set of sessions is to bring together educators, professionals, practitioners and customers of statistical thinking, methods and tools to discuss ways in which effective statistical education and training can be developed at the workplace to help promote improved statistical practice in all avenues of professional life.
Sessions
| Session | Title | Organizer |
| 6A | Environmental statistics | Jennifer Brown (New Zealand) |
| 6C | Statistics training for researchers in other disciplines | Helen MacGillivray (Australia) |
| 6D | Medical statistics | Janez Stare (Slovenia) |
| 6E | Statistical applications in the workplace | Joseph Wisenbaker (United States) |
| 6F | Service learning and statistics: integrating statistics education into the workplace | Ann A O’Connell (United States) |
| 6G | Preparing for the world of work: lessons for statistics education from beyond the field | Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren (Sweden) Lars Owe Dahlgren (Sweden) |