Training Resources
In this section you'll find beginner-friendly guides that will help you develop the skills you'll need for RAP.
Git
Git is a version control tool that helps you keep track of changes to your code, and makes it possible for multiple people to collaborate on a coding project.
There is a learning curve, but once you get the hang of Git, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it!
Python
Python is a powerful and flexible programming language that's commonly used in the data world. You can use it for whole range of tasks that you'd otherwise need multiple software packages to do, including data querying/manipulation, statistical analysis, auto-populating Excel and Word reports, visualisation, and more.
PySpark
Spark is an open-source analytics engine developed by Apache. It leverages the power of parallel computing - getting a cluster of machines to do your analysis, rather than a single server. This makes it an ideal choice when dealing with big data, as we often do in the NHS.
PySpark is an API for Spark which enables you to use Python code with Spark. If you have some SQL experience you should find it very comfortable to pick up as the commands are very similar.
R
R is another open-source programming language that's commonly used when working with data. It's often considered the language of choice for complex statistical work, and it has a huge range of packages available for data manipulation and visualisation too.
Coding Tips
In this section we'll compile some general advice and good practices that apply no matter what programming language you use. Start here:
External Links Disclaimer
NHS England makes every effort to ensure that external links are accurate, up to date and relevant, however we cannot take responsibility for pages maintained by external providers.
NHS England is not affiliated with any of the websites or companies in the links to external websites.
If you come across any external links that do not work, we would be grateful if you could report them by raising an issue on our RAP Community of Practice GitHub.