The right to education is a human right and also the path to success, innovation and the betterment of society. And while we observe International Literacy Day, we also need to consider all those who are working towards a dream job or are already part of the workforce. 

Digital transformation has picked up pace over the last three years, courtesy the pandemic, presenting new challenges for working professionals and aspiring graduates.  

In order to stay relevant and adapt to the new normal of data-driven workplaces, individuals need to become more ‘data literate’, says Pankaj Muthe, Academic Program Manager (APAC) for Qlik, a SaaS-based data integration and data analytics solution provider.

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Muthe explains why being ‘Data Literate’ is an important skill for every individual, whether technical or not, to stay relevant in the job market and provide value to the company.

What does it mean to be data literate? 

Quite simply, data literacy is the ability to read, work with, analyse and communicate with data. It’s a skill that empowers workers at all levels to ask the right questions of data, visualise and identify patterns, make decisions based on that data and communicate them to others.

Why is data literacy so important? 

It is a much-needed skill in today’s world since everybody is increasingly dealing with data in some form or the other. 

According to a report Data Literacy: The Upskilling Evolution, data literacy will be the most in-demand skill by 2030. There is a dire need to bridge the skills gap as the report also found that only 11% of the global workforce feels confident about their data literacy skills. Over 58% of employees surveyed in this report believe that data literacy will help them stay relevant in their role with the growing use of AI. 

This skill is not meant for the technically inclined only. It can be leveraged by an OTT service provider, an automotive parts seller, an HR professional who has to work with employee data, a sales executive in the field, or a marketing student conducting a survey. They all need to be able to read data, draw inferences from it and make decisions that will improve their performance or company’s bottom line. 

Data analytics helps them identify patterns based on historical data. However, when combined with artificial intelligence (AI), they will be able to make proactive decisions in near real-time, thereby achieving what is known as ‘Active Intelligence’. 

It is no surprise that the report also found that 83% of the data literate professionals became more productive and were able to make better decisions. 

Besides the employees, Qlik’s global research also found that only 21% of the population between the ages 16 and 24 years is data literate. 

One of the ways Qlik is addressing this gap is by giving the academic community access to our in-house resources—through the Qlik Academic Program—at zero cost. The program provides full-year subscriptions to their SaaS software, training and other learning resources. The program is meant for everyone because the vision is to create a data literate world, irrespective of the student’s background. 

The need of the hour is to equip the workforce and new entrants with the basic fundamentals of data analytics. This will allow them to transition into a data-driven workplace seamlessly and stay relevant for longer while continually lending value to the organisation.