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Training courses

The Q2020 Budapest conference will be accompanied by training courses to facilitate a deeper understanding in four topics related to quality in statistics. The following training courses will be held on 9 June 2020, one day before the conference:


All training courses will run in parallel, starting at 9:30 and ending at 17:30 with one lunch break and two coffee breaks. The training courses come with a registration fee that also covers lunch and coffee during the breaks. The number of participants for each training course is limited to 50 persons. Please note that registration to the training courses will close once the maximum number of participants has been reached.

For registration and information on the fees please visit the Registration page.

Information on the trainings

Quality Management in the Modernisation of Official Statistics

Facilitators: Maria João Zilhão, Marina Signore

Objectives

The course focuses on quality management in the context of the globalised statistical environment. It aims to provide an overview of quality management frameworks and tools as well as modernisation models. The main objective is to show how quality management and modernisation models can be used together to increase the efficiency of statistical organisations and comparability in statistical production. It will focus on methods both at the institutional environment and at survey/process levels. It will encourage the discussion and the sharing of experiences among participants.

Participants’ profile

The course is addressed to quality managers, metadata experts as well as statisticians dealing with quality assurance and documentation.

Overall description and approach

The course aims to be interactive and actively involve the participants. Presentations by the facilitators will be complemented by two group work sessions (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). Interactive sessions with questions/answers will also be organised.

Facilitators

Maria João Zilhão (Statistics Portugal)

Maria João Zilhão is member of the Board of Statistics Portugal (INE) since January 2018 and was the Director of the Planning, Control and Quality Unit at INE since 2007. She has been involved in Quality Management at the ESS since 1999, and was member of several groups, including the LEG on Quality and the Sponsorship Group on Quality. She has also been involved in the preparation of European quality tools such as the ESS QAF.  She has been a trainer in the field of quality in statistics at ESS level since 2001, and also has experience in international cooperation in the area of systematic quality management. She is a member of the Q2020 Programme Committee and has also been a Programme Committee member in previous editions of the European Quality Conference.


Marina Signore (Istat)

Marina Signore is Director of Research at the Italian National Statistical Institute (Istat) and Advisor to the Director of the Data Collection Directorate. She is the chair of the UNECE Supporting Standards Group in charge of the maintenance, updating and communication of modernisation models. Recently, she has coordinated the European project “Mixed-mode designs in social surveys-MIMOD” granted by Eurostat. She has been Head of division for Quality and Metadata for several years, and responsible for designing and implementing Istat’s Quality Policy until 2016. She has been member of international working groups on quality, among them the LEG on Quality, the Sponsorship Group on Quality and the UN NQAF expert group. She is a member of the Programme Committee of Q2020.

Adaptive Survey Design: From Theory to Practice

Facilitators: Barry Schouten (Co-trainer TBD)

Objectives

The course has two goals: 1) to get familiar with the basic concepts and main elements of adaptive survey design, and 2) to learn the basic steps in implementing adaptive survey design.

Participants’ profile

The course will address both statistical concepts and practical considerations. The course is suited for survey designers with some statistical and sampling theory background and survey methodologists with a focus on data collection.

Overall description and approach

The course will consist of presentations discussing theory and practice and a small group exercise around a realistic adaptive survey design case study.

Facilitators

Barry Schouten (Statistics Netherlands)

Barry Schouten is senior methodologist at Statistics Netherlands and professor at the Utrecht University. He has been involved in nonresponse analysis and adjustment methods, design and estimation for mixed-mode surveys, and adaptive survey design. He is one of the authors of the book Adaptive Survey Design (Schouten, Peytchev & Wagner 2017) and has published various papers on the topic.

Co-trainer TBD.

Visualisation, Storytelling in Official Statistics

Facilitators: Robert Fry (Co-trainer TBD)

Objectives

The course will touch on a variety of different aspects, including: (1) general best practices of basic data visualisation (e.g. choosing a chart & making a better chart), (2) different techniques for good storytelling with data, (3) thinking beyond traditional audiences and traditional reporting techniques in order to expand the reach, engagement and understanding of statistics. (e.g. personalisation, data exploration).

Participants’ profile

The participant should have an interest in broadening the reach and appeal of statistics, and the stories contained within – it might suit an analyst, subject-matter domain expert, or someone with a communications background.

The participant needs no prior technical experience.

It would be beneficial for the participant to bring a device (laptop/tablet) that has access to the internet – no specific software required.

Overall description and approach

The course will include a mix of presentations, group exercises, conversations and sharing of experiences.

Facilitators

Robert Fry (UK Office for National Statistics)

Robert Fry leads the data visualisation team at the UK Office for National Statistics. Over the years the team has established a strong reputation across the data visualisation community, and are one of a handful of NSIs that have team dedicated to data visualisation. Our goal is to make our data and analysis easier to engage with for all users, but with a particular focus on increasing our engagement with the general public – this can often involve techniques and approaches uncommon to National Statistics Institutes.

A portfolio of some of our content is available here: https://onsvisual.github.io/project_cairo/

Co-trainer TBD.

Quality of Multisource Statistics

Facilitators: Giovanna Brancato, Karin Blix

Objectives

The course will provide the participants with both knowledge of the recommendations of quality assurance of multisource statistics produced by the ESSnet KOMUSO (Quality of Multisource Statistics) and with an understanding of the handbook ‘Quality Guidelines for Multisource Statistics – QGMSS’. In close relation to that, the course will give an overview of Quality Measures and their Calculation Methods (QMCMs).

Participants’ profile

The course is suited for subject-matter domain experts who can increase their knowledge of quality issues in multisource production processes and increase awareness on the methods to measure output quality. This includes staff of statistical authorities involved in quality management who can understand the most recent best practices on multisource quality and adopt them in the institution.

Overall description and approach

The training will consist of a presentation by the lecturers and a group work session. A couple of participants will be asked to present and discuss their case studies.

Facilitators

Giovanna Brancato (Istat)

Giovanna Brancato has been working at the Italian National Statistical Institute (Istat) since 1996, always in the quality field. She is currently co-chair of the UN Expert Group on National Quality Assurance Framework and member of Eurostat’s Working Group on Quality in Statistics. She has been responsible of the quality unit at Istat from 2004 to 2006, and again since 2010. She has coordinated two European Projects and work package 1 of the ESSnet Quality of Multisource statistics. She has taught many quality courses in the framework of the European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP) and in statistical cooperation. She was course leader of the ESTP course “Quality framework, process and product quality measurement – Advanced course” in 2018 and 2019.


Karin Blix (Statistics Denmark)

Karin Blix has been working at Statistics Denmark since 1995. She has been working in several statistical domains including national accounts, education statistics and foreign trade statistics, working with both administrative data and surveys, and single and multiple source statistics. She has been the quality coordinator of Statistics Denmark for the past five years. She is a member of Eurostat’s Working Group on Quality in Statistics, and has been a member of the Steering Group QUAL implementing the QUAL@ESS Vision 2020 supporting framework in the ESS. She has also been a member of the TF QAF working on an updated Quality Assurance Framework for the ESS.