Explore KSACs by Pathway

In late 2025, the Partnership pulled together members of industry from across tech to share how the in-demand skillsets for entry-level roles in their fields have changed in the last two years. The Knowledge, Skills & Abilities and Credentials (KSACs) below reflect their feedback on entry-level expectations, especially in a tech workplace increasingly shaped by AI.

6. Data Storage, Operations, and Administration

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Label KSAC Description Bloom's Taxonomy Level
a Explain the role of data, information, and databases in organizations (for decision making). skill 1
b Define and appropriately use key terms such as: information, data, database, database management system, metadata, data warehousing and data mining. knowledge 2
c Describe a database management system. knowledge 2
d Identify various types of databases including local vs cloud. knowledge 2
e Describe a database management system (DBMS) and identify specific DBMS platforms and the role they play. knowledge 2
f Discuss and differentiate end-user vs meta data. knowledge 2
g Identify and differentiate structured vs unstructured data. knowledge 2
h Discuss and differentiate OLTP and OLAP databases. knowledge 2
i Demonstrate an understanding of database performance monitoring and tuning. knowledge 2
j Explain the data life cycle in terms of acquisition, migration, retention, expiration and disposition. knowledge 2
k Demonstrate an understanding of backup and recovery procedures and their necessity for disaster recovery and business continuity. skill 3
l Apply SQL data manipulation language such as Select (From), Insert, Update, Delete, JOIN (inner, outer, full, left, right), Where, Group By, Order By, etc. ability 3
m Demonstrate fundamental programming skills including the use of variables, loops, conditional branching, and program logic. skill 3
n Describe the implications of data architecture on data processing. knowledge 2
o Demonstrate an understanding content tagging and its role in data management. knowledge 2
p Demonstrate an understanding of cloud architecture and the capabilities of services such as AWS, Azure, IBM, Oracle and Google knowledge 2
q Explain version control and the significant role it plays in data management. knowledge 2
r Identify and describe basic file types and demonstrate fundamental file management. skill 2
s Ability to install and configure software. ability 3

Credentials

Vendor Certifications - DBMS

  1. Oracle Associate
  2. Microsoft
  3. IBM

Vendor Certifications - Cloud

  1. AWS
  2. Oracle
  3. Microsoft

Vendor Certifications - Tools

  1. Tableau
  2. SAS

Others

  1. DAMA CDMP
  2. DataCamp Certificate