One of What Works Cities’ 45 criteria for best practices in use of data and evidence is General Management Criterion 8: Your local government provides access to trainings for all local government staff on how to use data and evidence to make decisions.

Access to and management of data are important foundations of city management; adding a training component helps develop skilled practitioners who can make effective use of data. Cities approach training in a variety of ways, from offering in-house training to connecting with local educational institutions to forming communities of practice. Some cities have developed entire training institutes, including San Francisco’s Data Academy and Denver’s Peak Academy.[1]

Portland’s WWC project team has chosen this criterion as one area of focus in 2020. We would like to continue enhancing training offerings available to City staff, to help you sharpen your skills for collecting, analyzing, and communicating about data. In the coming months, we’ll be sharing about existing training opportunities and working on ways we can fill in the gaps. Check out the training catalogue below and stay tuned for further updates!

What training opportunities would you love to see the City offer? Take our 2-question survey to let us know!