University of Birmingham students wanted for Policy and Data Analyst internships at WMREDI starting in June/July 2022.
The West Midlands Regional Economic Development Institute (WMREDI) was 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.
Main Duties:
The successful applicant will work with members of the team on one of the projects listed below. It is proposed that the intern will be employed for 8 weeks. When submitting your application please list your preferred project choices. The post will contribute to producing policy outputs (such as research reports, policy briefings, blogs and presentations). 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 for the development of practical tools and products and services in the above areas. The post holder will contribute to quantitative and qualitative research and analysis.
Projects you could work on:
| Project details | Project lead |
| Developing an International Case study on University Skills and Strategies – The intern will conduct a case study of how universities operate alongside Further Education institutions in an international city-region as a follow on to work already carried out in the UK investigating the scale and manner of university involvement in skills initiatives. The project aims to identify lessons for city-regions in the UK. We are open to interns who have experience or knowledge of potential countries of interest (e.g. South Korea and Italy [ideal], Sweden/ Finland, Netherlands). It is not necessary to have detailed knowledge of the skills system of the international country, but knowledge of the language and education system in general in one of these countries would be desirable. Others with an interest in working on this general topic area are welcome to apply. | Dr Abigail Taylor |
| Anchors in other countries/changing the shape and nature of towns and city centres – developing case studies looking at international cities and their anchor institution networks. Exploring the governance, structures and institutional relationships to place development and growth | Dr Sara Hassan |
| Student Knowledge Exchange Project – Evaluating the Impact of Student Internships: Analysing quantitative and qualitative data from questionnaires and interviews to produce a report for Careers Network at the University of Birmingham and Keele University that evaluates the impact of student internships and other similar programmes for students, businesses, university, and place. | Hannes Read |
| Birmingham Economic Review 2023, working with the overall project manager collecting, collating and analysing the data for the BER, creating analysis, charts, and tables as defined by the Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. To be finalised, published and launched in winter 2022 | Kelvin Humphreys |
| Social prescribing for children and young people in collaboration with Wolverhampton University – The project will be output focused and work with a newly launched social prescribing programme for young people. The project will feed into the findings from the existing and new evidence, refine the programme, and implement an evaluation of the impact on children aged 13-17 years. | Professor Laura Caulfield |
| Stan’s Café data development: Identification and mapping of Local Authority and place-based funding/budget flows across comparative cities. Building on work with CIPFA and various projects which look at devolved responsibilities and budgets. The report will influence the case for devolution and devolvement of budgets. The work will be used to expand a play production developed by Stan’s Café with potential productions in late 2022/early 2023, and potentially with a parliamentary launch of the production. | Dr Abigail Taylor and Alice Pugh |
| Midlands Engine – Green jobs definition. Currently, there is no official single definition or consistent way to measure green jobs. In order for the Midlands Engine to respond, monitor and evaluate the performance of green job support, the intern, working with the overall project team will help to create a useable taxonomy that can be applied across the region. This will include a review of what green growth is or could be, and what skills or skills competencies will be required in the future. This will include a review of what work has already been undertaken in this space and the development of a useable model for the ME. (this one might be subject to change but there will be some work in the green area) | Professor Anne Green and Scott Grindey, Black Country Consortium LTD |
| Midlands Engine – People and digital skills are key to growth, with the mismatch between business skill needs and resident skill levels across the Midlands Engine a significant productivity challenge. Working with the overall project team, the intern will help to identify what digital skills in software development are lacking amongst the current Midlands Engine workforce. This will include identifying the basic, better and best vocational skills that are required to land key jobs in software development and identifying any growth potential or workforce opportunities. | Dr James Davies |
| Developing a place self-assessment dashboard – based on the self-assessment frameworks being developed by the trailblazer devolution deals (West Midlands and Manchester). Creating an easy to use tool that can be used by places to understand the challenges of achieving levelling up. Expanding the work in the West Midlands on monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals and the inclusive growth framework. | Josh Swan |
| Business case ready reckoner (tops trumps of projects) – will encompass a literature review and collation of stats around different types of interventions to be able to build an assessment tool to help with business cases and evaluations. Will also provide material to develop a game for business case training, highlighting trade-offs and impacts of different projects. | Alice Pugh |
Skills, Experience, and Qualifications:
- 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 student/researcher at the University of Birmingham, with registration continuing throughout the contract length.
- This internship is open to students from all degree disciplines.
Date of Interviews: 18th/ 20th May 2022
Projected Start Date: July 2022
Projected End Date: September 2022
Pay Grade: Grade 6 (£14.32 per hour)
How to apply:
Submit an up-to-date CV and complete the online application form – Apply here
The closing date/time for receipt of all applications is midnight on (Friday 6th May 2022)
Please note: You are only eligible to apply to this role if you are a current University of Birmingham student and if you are not a UOB student, your application will not be considered.