E is for Eskwelabs Issue 052 - Understanding How our Nation Thinks, Where do we Go from Here 🧠✨
In our fifty-second issue, we have a variety of sections from educational content on data literacy and data analytics, commentary on the future of the education sector, and career openings.
We created this newsletter to keep our alums, partners, and anyone interested in learning skills for the future of work updated and connected to our ever-growing family. If you want to read our previous issues, you can check them out here.
Here are 3 clues to our Word of the Day: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
🔑 Clue #1: We believe it’s the key to how we’ll move forward as a nation.
📚 Clue #2: It’s what we do in Eskwelabs.
💪 Clue #3: It’s an investment that no one can take away from you.
Hi everyone, it’s Francine here! 👋 It’s been 3 weeks since the May 9 elections and the conversations around it continue. If our previous email was a more serious wake up call, we hope that Issue 52 today will fill you with hope and actionable information.
Were you able to guess our Word of the Day? It’s “Education!” And the 3 clues we provided just happen to be the main sections in this issue. Happy reading!
Questions we’ll answer:
What is data literacy and why is it important?
How is data analytics involved in understanding the Automated Election System results?
What are the challenges the Philippine education sector is facing?
What actions can you take in your career to be part of the education revolution?
READING TIME: 9 minutes
🔑 Education is the key to how we’ll move forward as a nation.
Back to basics
We typically jump straight into data analytics and data science news in this newsletter because the Data Analytics Bootcamp and Data Science Fellowship are our flagship programs. But the exciting thing is, Eskwelabs actually has a beginner-friendly program called Data Literacy Skillscourse. It’s still in its early stages and it’s designed specifically in partnership with FHMoms. But this program’s main focus is on data literacy. To celebrate its public launch this June, we wanted to dedicate a Data 101 segment in today’s issue.
📖 Data can be found all around us.
It is a collection of an assortment of facts, which you can use to answer questions and tell stories. These facts can either be qualitative or quantitative.
Qualitative data | This is non-numerical data. You use this type of data for classification or categorization purposes.
Quantitative data | This is numerical data. You use this type of data for counting or tallying purposes. And there are actually two kinds of quantitative data: Discrete (whole numbers) and Continuous (decimals).
📖 Data is collected through primary or secondary sources.
Primary sources:
Collected firsthand by researchers
Interviews
Observations
Questionnaire or survey responses
Secondary sources:
Existing data or data that has already been collected before and is now available to you
Web info
Official statistics
Reports from different industries
🧠 Data literacy is the ability to read, write, and communicate data
Did you know that we are creating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day? There are 18 zeroes in a quintillion! With so much data being produced daily, you can see why those who have data literacy skills—both individuals and companies—would have a competitive advantage. Sadly, today there’s an existing talent gap in people with data literacy skills.
🧠 What does it mean to be data literate?
You can make data-driven decisions. For example, the situation is that sales are decreasing. Who is driven by data in this situation?
Person A: “Based on my experience, it’s because people don’t want to buy our product during this time of the year.”
Person B: “If we compare year-on-year revenue, this time of the year always results in a 10% decrease in sales.”
Correct answer: Person B was being data-driven.
"Critical thinking is the ability to see the world from a more objective perspective and not from someone else’s point of view." —J.C. Scull
📚 Education is what we do in Eskwelabs.
Inspiring
We celebrate our Eskwelabs anniversary every May 13. Today, we’re officially 3 years old! (Feel free to greet us in the comments section below.)
Let’s do a quick refresher or introduction for any new newsletter subscribers! What is our mission? We work to inspire, equip, and connect people to opportunities in the future of work. We do this by democratizing data skills education. Eskwelabs’ long-term goal is to see a data literate ASEAN region.
Equipping
Analytics in the Philippines Automated Election System
Bash Yumol, who used to be one of our Data Science Fellowship data sprint instructors, conducted a lecture and demo on elections data processing last May 24, 2022 for our alumni. With Bash’s permission, we’re making the lecture recording and codes available in this blog post.
This blog post talks about what the Automated Elections System (AES) is. Bash also sheds light on the concerns of netizens in the days following the May 9 elections about the validity of the transmission.
Decisions that Define a Nation
Lex Tanganco, our Data Analytics Bootcamp Program Lead, paved the way for the publishing of this blog post. We shared this in our previous issue but it becomes even more relevant when paired with Bash’s primer on the AES.
This blog post lists questions of a critical thinker when that person is faced with any kind of chart online. There’s also a section at the end that explains terms like population, sample, margin of error, and confidence interval.
Connecting
Francine Tan, our Learning Communities Manager, joined the panel at QBO Philippines' "QLITAN: The Future of EdTech" last May 24, 2022 to reflect on the question: What is the future of education and technology?
While the outlook of the education sector in the Philippines is a hopeful one, there were three challenges summarized during the talk:
The challenge of social inequalities - The country consists of a variety of income classes and each one has a unique set of concerns.
The challenge of making technology accessible - Geographical limitations are real and need to be met with resourcefulness.
The challenge of perfecting the pedagogy - The educational instruction needs to be both effective and engaging.
We’re honored to have been joined by key players in the education space. Cheers to JV Fiel of Wela School Systems, Jong Herrera of Marikit Elementary School, and Jacqueline Maye Lim of Nas Academy Philippines.
💪 Education is an investment that no one can take away from you.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report in 2020 revealed that “50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025, as adoption of technology increases.” This is a thought that keeps Eskwelabs up at night, as we continuously innovate and design learning experiences that will prepare all individuals for the future of work.
If you’re thinking of upskilling
And you need a sign to go for it, then here’s Eskwelabs with a big “YOU CAN DO IT!” poster. Admissions are ongoing for our two flagship programs:
🖥️ Cohort 10 of the Data Science Fellowship starts on September 12, 2022. Enrol here.
Assessment exam coverage: View here
Deadline of assessment exam: August 21, 2022 (Multiple choice part)
Attend the Open House for free on June 23, 2022. Register here.
📊 Cohort 7 of the Data Analytics Bootcamp starts on July 18, 2022. Enrol here.
Assessment exam coverage: View here
Deadline of assessment exam: June 26, 2022 (Multiple choice part)
Attend the Open House for free on June 7, 2022. Register here.
If you’re feeling compelled to contribute to the mission
And you can’t get our mission and vision out of your mind, then here’s Eskwelabs with a genuine “APPLY NOW!” message for you.
There are more openings in our job board here, but here are some highlights:
Learner Success Officer | Data Literacy Education Specialist | Data Analytics Mentor | Data Science Mentor | Data Engineering Mentor
That’s it for our fifty-second issue of the newsletter! Thanks for reading. What did you think of this format? Let us know here. See you in your inbox on June 1! We have a special email for you.
💌 Cheering you on always,
Francine
Learning Community Manager at Eskwelabs