University of Birmingham Masters or PhD student wanted for Policy and Data Analyst internship at WMREDI. The internship starts this February.
The West Midlands Regional Economic Development Institute (WMREDI) has been established following City-REDI’s significant grant award from Research England (UKRI). The team is an innovative hybrid approach of academic, policy research and support staff delivering relevant and impactful research with local, national and international partners.
Three professors with expertise in international business, local and regional economic development, innovation and entrepreneurship, skills and labour markets lead an inter-disciplinary team focused on a place-based approach to city region growth. All embedded within a Triple A rated Business School and Russell Group university.
Role Responsibility
The successful applicant will work with members of the team to develop a toolkit for schools and colleges at the University of Birmingham to highlight ‘what works’ when conducting virtual internships with internal and external partners. The toolkit is designed to support expanding the use of virtual student internships at the University of Birmingham.
Internship with a view to starting in February 2021. The Internship will be 125 hours. It is proposed that the intern will be employed for 8 hours a week for ten weeks, increasing to 15 hours a week for the final 3 weeks.
Salary range:
£16.67 per hour for 125 hours or £2083.75 over 13 weeks
The post will contribute to:
- Developing a toolkit to find out what works well and what can be a barrier when organising and conducting virtual internships. This will be developed through planning and conducting focus groups, analysing themes from focus group research and liaising with student bodies such as the Guild of Students
- Producing policy outputs (such as research reports, policy briefings, blogs and presentations to support better organisation and use of virtual internships in future). The wider WMREDI programme of academic research, policy engagement and impact and knowledge exchange.
- Wider City-REDI activities, such as partner research projects and consultancy, external engagement and support the development of practical tools and products and services in the above areas.
Person Specification
The post holder will contribute to qualitative research and analysis required to produce the toolkit. This will include helping to organise and analyse responses from focus groups with internal and external partners to understand barriers to virtual internships.
Selection criteria:
- Strong academic performance
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Experience or knowledge of public policy, economics, human geography, labour market studies, management and business studies or applied social science.
- Knowledge of the application of qualitative methods, survey methods, interviews and impact evaluation.
- Ability to prioritise own work under pressure.
- Ability to work with initiative and think creatively.
- Confidence to express new ideas and approaches.
- Evidence of being able to plan a schedule of work and to deliver the plan to a strict deadline.
- Ability to work within a team and collaboratively across the organisation.
- Must be currently registered as a postgraduate student/researcher at the University of Birmingham, with registration continuing throughout the contract length.
The successful post-holders will report to Hannes Read, project lead, and work closely with Abi Taylor and Alice Pugh.
Academic areas
This internship is open to students from all degree disciplines. However, it would be especially suited to students from the following disciplines:
- Social Policy
- Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Business
- History and Cultures
- Government and Society
- Graduate School
- Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences
- Psychology
- Education
How to apply
Please email your CV & Cover Letter to Elizabeth Goodyear – e.goodyear@bham.ac.uk
For informal inquiries please contact Hannes Read (j.read@bham.ac.uk), Alice Pugh (A.Pugh@bham.ac.uk) or Abi Taylor (A.Taylor.7@bham.ac.uk)
The deadline for applications is 9th January 2022.
This blog was written by Hannes Read, Project Policy and Data Analyst, City-REDI / WMREDI, University of Birmingham and was first posted on the Birmingham Business School Blog.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.