DepartmentThe Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) wishes to appoint a Data Analyst & Training Officer to work primarily on the operation of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS).
Understanding Society tracks changes in people’s lives over time – following everyone from an initial sample covering 40,000 households across the UK. It plays a pivotal role in generating data that enables researchers and policymakers to understand the changing lives of people. The study has approximately 6000 registered data users from a wide range of backgrounds both within the UK and internationally. These include students and staff from higher education institutions, researchers from charities, think tanks and commercial organisations and statisticians and researchers in Government.
Our data users have a wide range of skills and hence very varied needs. We provide a range of general and topic-specific resources and training courses to support users as well as an active user support forum. Improving access to and usability of the complex longitudinal data, is essential to the ongoing success of the Study.
Duties of the RoleThe overall purpose of this role is to improve our wide-ranging data users’ ability to analyse the data effectively. The post holder will be part of the Understanding Society’s Outreach Team, which aims to provide data analysis training and support to data users and will work closely with the study’s Policy and Partnerships Unit, which engages policy makers with the Study.
You will manage, develop and deliver training courses and create teaching material to enhance the quantitative skills of users enabling them to analyse Understanding Society data and provide data analysis advice to users. A key focus of this role is to provide bespoke user support, for example undertaking data analysis projects for co-funding government departments via the Policy and Partnership Unit’s Direct Access programme. In addition, you will collaborate with other parts of the Understanding Society team to improve our value-added data and online resources.
The Outreach team consists of an Associate Director, a User Support and Training Officer, this post, and works with a range of researchers who provide expertise on topics or software, as well as colleagues in the data, and communications teams.
A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found within the job pack.
Skills and qualifications requiredThe successful candidate will have an undergraduate and Master’s degree in a relevant quantitative social science or statistics discipline and expertise and knowledge of quantitative analysis methods including longitudinal analysis methods, along with a good understanding of management issues in complex datasets.
You will have excellent inter-personal skills and ability to effectively engage with diverse groups of data users and interact with them directly and be able to work independently using your own initiative. Strong knowledge and expertise of using Stata or R for statistical analysis and data management is also essential for this post.
This post is fixed-term for 2 years in the first instance with renewal subject to continued funding beyond the initial two-year period. Part-time working will be considered at a minimum of 0.6 FTE (21.6 hours per week). The post also involves access to Government systems, information or data and will be subject to the staff vetting process. Further information can be found in the job pack.
At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.
To support this commitment we have our Global Forum, a staff-led network that promotes and celebrates the rich cultural diversity among Essex staff, and our Colchester campus based Faith Centre, which hosts regular services, meetings and events organised by our chaplains and faith representatives. For more information see: https://www.essex.ac.uk/life/student-facilities/religion-and-faith
Please see the attached job pack, which contains a full job description and person specification, which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role plus more information relating to the post. We recommend you read this information carefully before making an application. Applications should be made on-line, but if you would like advice or help in making an application, or need information in a different format, please email the Resourcing Team (resourcing@essex.ac.uk).
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