For the better part of the course, the trainers organised practical exercises where the participants were able to gain practical experience with the software; during these exercises – and during the presentations – the trainers used data gathered and processed by GSO itself. The GSO participants were also made aware of the need for ‘data warehousing’ and ‘data management’ as an integral part of a ‘business intelligence’ process.

The intrinsic motivation of the participants – paired with their experience in working with statistical data and concepts – helped them absorb the new skills quickly and enabled them to confidently showcase them in the half-day seminar for GSO managers on 14 December 2018.

GSO management expressed its appreciation of the visualisation methods and techniques acquired. It announced follow-up in the form of additional training in support of their in-house dissemination, also at provincial level, on the basis of licensed software packages to be provided with GIZ assistance in early-2019. GSO will establish a core-team of data visualisation experts who will then also be responsible to propagate their skills to the rest of the GSO staff, in the interest of sustainability and statistical reporting in Vietnam.