The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is developing a data literacy credential program to complement the circular announced earlier this year, according to Kristen Wilson, the strategic acquisition data management lead at OMB, the Meritalk reported.

Wilson revealed that the curriculum for the credential will be crafted over the next two years, in tandem with the office’s High-Definition (HiDef) centralized data management policy framework established by the May circular.

“That’s the plan right to get out to not only our contracting officers, but everyone who touches acquisition data to understand the importance of data quality at the time of entry, to understand how data is used throughout the acquisition life cycle,” Wilson said while speaking at an ACT-IAC event.

The program will address the entire data lifecycle within the acquisition domain and aim to enhance data skills in back-office functions. Additionally, the training will incorporate tools and analytics capabilities relevant to the HiDef data environment.

“We expect that once the HiDef environment is built, and the agencies start getting access to this data, we anticipate that there will be more products that come out of the hi def environment that’s using all of this Federal acquisition data. You could absolutely see a future state where we are building generative AI capabilities to help the workforce build out statements of work, or RFIs, et cetera,” she added.

Earlier this year, OMB released a circular titled “Enhancing Acquisition Data Management’ which aims to enhance agency access to dependable Government-wide acquisition data and streamline the contracting process by reducing duplication of data, tools, and efforts.

This circular signifies a fundamental shift in the Government’s approach to acquisition data management. It establishes the policy and technical framework enabling all agencies to scale and harness each agency’s data for improved contracting outcomes.