Statistical Literacy as an Important Component of Personnel Training for the Digital Economy

Abstract

The authors attempted to explain and outline their point of view on statistical literacy and how it should be an essential requirement when assessing the quality of professional training amidst the rapid development of the digital economy. The paper examines two groups of questions: digital economy as a social development vector and a place of statistics within the digital economy.

The article emphasizes the features of the digital economy as a defining vector of transformation of almost all parameters of modern society; it analyzes not only the benefits, but also new challenges that arise in the process of digitalization of production and management activities. Much attention is given to examining the role and place of statistical science and practice within the framework of the economy based on the widespread use of digital technologies. At the same time, the authors consider issues arising from the need to actively integrate statistics and statistical education into the depths of the digital economy so that a new generation of employees would freely possess the tools for a comprehensive assessment of the rates, results and consequences of digitalization of economic relations. The evidence is given regarding the fact that the analytical skills of specialists in the digital economy cannot not be linked with the statistical literacy of absolutely any personnel (economists, managers, marketers, lawyers, etc.), since the indicators of the digital economy do not simply reflect the content of the new stage of development societies, but are the key to unlocking the evolutionary characteristics of our civilization.

In the final part of the article, the authors conclude that, essentially, the formation of statistical literacy in a country should be one of the most important targets in the training of modern personnel for the digital economy, without which it is practically impossible to achieve a significant increase in the efficiency of social production, which is declared as the single condition of a conscious transition of Russia to the rails of digital technology.