ONS staff IT training

FOI Ref: ​FOI/2022/4081

You asked

I would like to know the number of staff at your organisation who have undertaken IT training courses, both internally and externally, over the past 5 years, broken down by year from May to April, as well as the name of each course and the cost of each course.

We said

​Thank you for your request.

We have undertaken a search to source the information you have requested, including collecting data from our learning management system and Civil Service Learning. In some instances, we do not hold five years' worth of data, so have provided all that we hold. We have consulted areas within the organisation who may deliver IT training including Data Protection Team, Security, and the availability of IT skills.

It should be noted that we cannot ascribe a cost to all workshops. These may be part of a wider e-learning package of delivery, where the IT e-learning forms part of that package and is therefore free to the end user at the point of deliver.

We do not capture data in a May to April annualised basis so cannot offer data broken down in this way.

Hut Six (security IT tutorials on data management) has been captured on the second excel sheet. Please see accompanying Excel spreadsheet titled FOI 4081 IT training.

Civil Service Learning

1. Since the beginning of the Learning in Platform for Government in August 2019, our staff have undertaken training in basic digital skills and Microsoft excel. The cost of this is mostly free with the exception on two new courses in 21/22, Microsoft excel intermediate (£640 per head), and Microsoft excel advanced (£665 per head). See annex A for course breakdown.

ONS Learning Hub

2. The digital dashboard Microsoft 365 was added to the ONS learning hub in March 21. The dashboard covers a wide range of digital skills including Excel, Word, PowerPoint and MS teams. It offers both eLearning and virtual show and tell sessions. This is delivered in house, with no outside costs. As of April 2022, 422 learners have accessed and used the digital dashboard.

Percipio (it is noted as an external provider)

3. ONS has been using the Percipio eLearning platform since Sept 2021. The platform has a vast amount of eLearning in the IT space. The spreadsheet provides some breakdown of the types of IT information accessed by ONS staff in the period Oct 2021 to March 2022. The information is broken down by channels (which contain multiple learning interventions such as videos, eLearning courses, books) and by completion rates.