Our data maturity assessment provides Coleg Y Cymoedd with a vision for data

Read this page in Welsh/Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg.

The challenge

Coleg y Cymoedd wanted to evaluate the current state of their data operations to ensure they have the right foundations in place to support better decision making. They also recognised the need for a structured approach to data management to best support emerging technologies like AI and address cybersecurity concerns.

Rory Meredith, assistant principal and chief technology officer, and Karen Workman, vice principal and chief operating officer, attended the data maturity workshop at Digifest in 2023, and were inspired to create a data strategy for the college. The team wanted a strong base to support their use of new technologies.

The college asked themselves; what state is our data in? Is it siloed across multiple systems in different departments? How can we better integrate our data so that we can interrogate it in better ways? If we can realise value from doing this, how can we increase automation across the data journey?

These discussions helped them shape three strategic priorities:

• Create a strong data strategy and structured approach to implement new technologies at the college
• Foster an improved culture of how data is perceived, aiming for improved data-literacy and collaboration
• Benchmark their data maturity to other FE colleges to contextualise progress and identify best practices

Solution

The college worked with us to recognise how the our data maturity framework could help them understand their current state and areas for improvement. The data maturity assessment, based in Jisc Online Surveys, had been newly developed to allow providers to engage their teams in the data discussions, providing feedback and an assessment of maturity across the framework areas.

The college shared the assessment with representatives of their staff body and received a better response than expected. This suggested that the data competency of staff was slightly better than previously perceived. We provided a survey dashboard with the results: survey responses are visualised on an interactive dashboard giving the college a clear understanding of areas to be addressed. In addition, Rory used AI tools to analyse survey data and to develop an evaluation and action plan.

Benefits

The college identified “systems and processes” as their primary area for improvement, recognising they had disparate data sources. The assessment provided the evidence they needed to move towards better consolidation of their data. They also needed to integrate a reporting solution to better visualise their results.

Meanwhile, the college started mapping their data architecture and data flows with the aim of fully documenting the data journey. They also began to develop a training program for key systems, analytics, and key definitions, aiming to upskill the staff body and empower them to be more confident with technical data terminology, particularly at senior leadership level.

Results

The data maturity assessment and results brought a deeper understanding of the data landscape at Coleg y Cymoedd, enabling a data strategy to propel the college forward with its use of technologies and data:

"We have an excellent understanding of the critical gaps that we need to address immediately and more medium/long term actions that should be included as we formalise our strategy."

-Rory Meredith, assistant principal and chief technology officer, Coleg y Cymoedd

What next?

Coleg y Cymoedd want to be better data-informed in their thinking and decisions, with mature data practices the norm at the college.

Longer term, the college aim to leverage newer AI tools to support predictive and diagnostic analytics, ensuring they can highlight issues before they occur, better supporting student retention and attainment. They also want to streamline data processes for maximum benefit:

“The assessment is certainly helping us understand things better. It's helped us focus on our position right now, the plans we need to make for both the shorter term and longer term, and how we get closer to that ideal of being more structured in our approach.”

-Rory Meredith, assistant principal and chief technology officer, Coleg y Cymoedd

With us, Coleg y Cymoedd have taken strides towards a data strategy that will support medium and long-term solutions to meet their data goals.

Rory joined us at the most recent Digifest to tell his story of being inspired to kick start the college’s data maturity journey.