2C: Statistical practices: what do statisticians do? *

Abstract

The demand for statistical skills is growing in many different fields and sectors, and the employment of statisticians is expected to increase drastically. However, employers are experiencing difficulties in hiring mainly because there is a misalignment between the skills acquired through statistics education and the skills required of a statistician at the workplace as statisticians develop practices that grow out of experience. In order to investigate statistical practices that are developed at the workplace, statisticians were solicited to reflect on their experience. Each statistician sorted and identified prevailing practices performed at the workplace. Results revealed predominant and newly developed statistical skills from the perspective of the practitioners and inform how to better promote an authentic experience throughout education. During this session, participants will engage in an activity to explore their perspective on the role of statisticians and compare their perspective to previous findings.