VSS to implement strategies
and use of VSS training tools
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Topic of this lesson
• From national strategies to work plans and
how to implement them.
• How to use the training tools of the VSS.
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From strategy to plan
• When a strategy has been adopted a plan needs
to be written about how to implement the VSS.
• This is mostly a multi-annual plan along with a
detailed annual plan.
• Sometimes to be followed with detailed short
term plans like quarterly plans.
• Planning leads to the design of implementation
plans.
• To make implementation plans training of staff is
needed.
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Planning and Programming
• The statistical organization is advised to draw up
a work plan.
• Best is to have a multi-annual work plan.
• This can be for a three or five year period.
• The plan should list by topic or sector all ongoing
work that is relevant and leads to results.
• Also planned new work for that period part of the
strategy and not part of the strategy.
• And mention what is financed and what not.
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Yearly and quarterly
work plans
• Yearly plan should only mention what actually
will be done in that year: ongoing and new.
• By what unit of the organization/system.
• Under which conditions and timeframe.
• What (intermediate) results will be produced.
• How many staff are involved.
• Quarterly work plans are the quarterly versions of
yearly plans. They describe progress.
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Recommended info
on the VSS
• The VSS has sections on management and
organizational issues.
• The VSS has a training course on the
management of statistical systems.
• The VSS has an eLearning course on the
management if statistical projects.
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From plan to
implementation plan
• The work plan provides lists of tasks that the organization is
involved in.
• These are: ongoing routine work, special tasks and new work
and planning of new work.
• New task can be defined as “projects”, with a beginning, an
end and specific deliverables.
• In principle all work can be defined as projects, as long as
specific outputs at the end of the plan period are expected.
• This approach will lead to the definition of a lot of projects,
which include regular work.
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Implementation
planning
• After a strategy and a work plan a project
needs an implementation plan.
• An implementation plan is a technical project
description about what technical and
organizational steps will be made.
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Types of statistical projects
• Some scholars think that only new and short activities
can be called projects.
• Here we assume that all new activities can be called
projects.
• In theory all activities that produce outputs can be
called projects.
• A statistical project can be some type of survey, or part
of that.
• Including data collection from administrations.
• ICT work, data analysis and even improving
administrations can be considered projects.
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More types of
statistical projects
Projects can be:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Covering all activities and themes of statistics.
New and short in duration.
New and long in duration.
Large.
Small.
Technically simple.
Technically very complex.
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Using management tools
• Central in the management of projects are the units of
management. That’s is about what has to be managed.
• In projects we use defined activities, staff and budget.
• Activities are defined by using the Work Breakdown
Structure process approach(WBS).
• With a WBS process a project is broken down into
separate WBS activities.
• A WBS activity is a complete and coherent set of
actions for which we can allocate staff, budgets,
responsibilities, accountabilities and information and
training needs.
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The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
approach to define core activities
• Each project consist of a list of WBS activities.
• Each of these activities should be well defined in detail.
• The WBS core activities are the unit of management and
analysis.
• It has a start and an end time.
• It has a defined set of inputs: staff and budget.
• It has a defined set of outputs (reports/products).
• It has a defined set of training needs that should be
addressed.
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Using Knowledge
• Projects can be split into two levels
- The general level of the project.
- The specific level for each of the defined core
activities.
• This corresponds roughly with general knowledge
about the project (objectives and activities) and
specific knowledge needed at each core activity
level.
• Clearly there may be an overlap between general
knowledge and specific knowledge.
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Getting knowledge you need
• Each project and each activity have their own sets of
knowledge needs.
• Knowledge does not normally exists with workers but
needs to be created and maintained.
• This is done by training events or self study.
• Training events:
– Courses, workshops, classroom use of VSS e-Learning.
– Can be Certified or Not Certified.
– Self study: books, articles, VSS e-learning courses. Certified
or not certified.
• The next slide is listing the available eLearning courses
on the VSS.
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VSS eLearning courses
Courses on:
Forms:
-
Management of Statistical Systems
•
Project Management of Statistical Surveys •
GIS
•
Presentations/ Power Point 20 lessons
Presentations/ Power Point 24 lessons
Power Point
6 lessons
-
Labor Market Statistics and Survey Design •
Justice, Security and Crime Statistics
•
Quality Assurance of the Census.
•
Power Point (voiced over)
Power Point (voiced over)
Power Point
20 lessons
20 lessons
20 lessons
-
Agriculture Statistics.
Business Statistics and Business Register.
System of National Accounts (basic and
advanced).
Government Finance Statistics
•
•
•
•
Power Point
Power Point
Power Point
Power Point
20 lessons
20 lessons
10 lessons
10 lessons
•
Power Point
20 lessons
-
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eLearning
16
Twenty Animated Lessons
eLearning
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Training of staff
• Organizing training events, using the VSS in
different forms:
- Following formal training courses (delivered by
experts).
- Following specific training events: courses and
workshops; in-house or other. (delivered by own staff)
- Following VSS e-Learning (future option).
• With different types of support: professional
trainers/facilitators, in-house staff, other.
• With different duration and different costs.
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Using VSS training tools
• Training events need a training plan and training
curriculum. For general and specific stats topics.
• Define the stats project and the separate core activities and
identify the training needs,
• A match can be made between staff and training needs.
• Training can be followed by staff according to their needs.
• This can be done in classroom situations (preferred), using
distance learning (future option), or self paced (by
individual staff members).
• For class room situations facilitators and trainers need to be
trained first and made available.
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Applying the VSS training
received
• When knowledge has been absorbed: what to
do with it?
• It needs to be applied.
• The best way to use trained skills is to apply it
in concrete projects.
• Therefore staff to be trained should work in
projects with specific activities for which
training is needed.
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Interactivity on the VSS portal
• Registered VSS users can communicate and
contribute by:
– Using the VSS Wiki and uploading their own
documents.
– Using the VSS discussion groups and starting or
participating in discussions.
– VSS Wiki and VSS discussions are organized by
regions.
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