In April of 2023, the City of San José’s Information Technology Department piloted Phase 1 of an 11-month Data Upskilling Program, involving Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, Library, and Information Technology departments. This groundbreaking initiative aimed to transform city staff into data-savvy city professionals. Participants were tasked with selecting topics related to their day-to-day departmental work and business requirements to explore using data. Managerial approval was required to ensure commitment and continuity. 

Based on the direction from the City Council, the City's IT department began building skills and collaborating with other departments on equity through data efforts so that city staff can integrate data into their work with the City. A blog was also published highlighting the Data Upskilling Program, which can be found here.

What is Data Upskilling?

City staff is equipped with deep domain knowledge in their respective areas. The data upskilling program is designed for the subject matter experts (SME) who already understand their department's data but require more technical knowledge to execute a type of analysis that can extract patterns and insights from their data. Because these SMEs know and see where the data is coming from and they work closely with the decision makers they have a better feel for its accuracy, reliability and utility. These SMEs bring a problem statement from their work and go through a curriculum that will train them on the skillsets needed for analyzing data that they use to solve the problem and take the solution back to their respective teams.

Below is the timeframe from the 2nd cohort of the course, which has now completed. Planning is currently underway for the next cohort and details to be announced in the summer.

Phase 2: (April 2024 - In Progress)

Due to an overwhelming amount of interested participants, a Phase 2 of the Data Upskilling Program was launched. Participants are expected to present a final capstone project in March 2025. Below is a list of projects that students brought into the course. 

Phase 1: (April 2023 - Mar 2024)

The first Phase of the Data Upskilling Program concluded in March 2024 with 14 students successfully completing the course and presenting a final capstone project to their respective sponsors.