Data Literacy: An essential skill for the industry

Data literacy is the ability to read, write, critically assess, communicate and extract value of data in different contexts. As such, data literacy is a key competence in the current digital economy, where most transactions require handling high amounts and variety of data. For a data literate workforce in the data-driven industry, there is a critical need for training and educational curricula that address this key competence, both in Higher Education and professional development programs. Through a systematic desk research spanning over 15 European countries, this paper sheds light on how data literacy is addressed in European Higher Education and professional train-ing. Official syllabuses and educational documents have been examined to determine the strengths and challenges of data literacy enhancement, and identify the needs and opportunities for data literacy-specific training pro-grams that promote a data-driven culture within the European industry eco-system.