Intersect Australia Research Digital Skills Training Program – 2022 Report
Intersect, a leading provider of digital skills training for researchers in the Australasian region, has released its 2022 report on the impact of its technology-focused training courses.
With a mission to help researchers become more efficient and effective in their research, Intersect provides an extensive range of technology-focused training to researchers and higher degree research (HDR) students across Australia.
In 2022, Intersect trained a total of 5,664 researchers in over 300 courses delivered interactively either face-to-face or online by over 25 highly experienced instructors.
The courses ranged from awareness to advanced levels, covering categories such as Research Computing, Programming, Data Science, Data Analytics, Machine Learning (ML) & Artificial Intelligence (AI), Statistics, Data Visualisation, Data Collection, and Data Management.
Intersect’s expertise extends across various disciplines including, but not limited to: ICT, Data Science, Linguistics, Engineering, Statistics, Bioinformatics, Health & Medical Sciences, Materials Science, Sports Science, Spatial Analytics, Computational Chemistry, Numerical Modelling, Behavioural Science, and Social and Political Sciences.
Intersect members are located in NSW, VIC, SA, and ACT, where the majority of the training program takes place. However, the Intersect training courses are also attended by HDR students and researchers from other states and territories, such as Western Australia (WA), Tasmania (TAS), and Queensland (QLD), as well as in national organisations mainly due to the NCI-Intersect Training Partnership. The NCI-Intersect training partnership includes running a series of training courses aimed at users who may be new to NCI’s high-performance computing environment, as well as experienced users looking for a refresher.
Most attendees (2,682) were from New South Wales (NSW) universities, organizations, and government departments, with 1,147 and 1,124 HDR students and researchers from Victoria (VIC) and South Australia (SA), respectively. The fourth-largest cohort was from national organizations, with approximately 350 attendees, followed by the ACT with 260 attendees.
To evaluate the quality of the training delivery, Intersect asks attendees to complete a course evaluation survey at the end of each course, where a Net-Promoter Score (NPS) is also measured.
In 2022, Intersect’s NPS was +70 based on 2,090 responses (~37% of attendees), which is considered outstanding. Moreover, the average scores of the primary metrics for measuring the quality of the training delivery exceed 9.1 out of 10, indicating that feedback from participants is excellent.
Intersect’s commitment to excellence in providing digital skills training to researchers is evident in its high-quality courses and excellent feedback from participants.
Its continuous efforts to revise, update, and expand its course catalogue ensure that researchers always have access to the most relevant and useful research training.