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SalaryAssistant Analysts (13-month Student Placement)
(5 placements available – starting in July 2024)
Location: Bristol
Salary: Pay Band APP5: £26,415
Benefits include: 25 days annual leave per year and a comprehensive staff development programme, plus generous civil service defined benefit pension
About us
Our Data, Foresight and Analysis directorate (DFA) is currently seeking a number of Assistant Analysts to join our supportive, enthusiastic, and high performing teams, where you will be part of a community of 70 analysts. The directorate provides a range of data collection, analysis and research activities that have an essential role underpinning the regulatory functions of the Office for Students (OfS). We have a long history of employing placement students, and about a quarter of the directorate’s 70 staff were originally placement students themselves.
The OfS is the independent regulator of higher education in England and our primary aim is to ensure that English higher education is delivering positive outcomes for students – past, present, and future. We aim to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers, and are:
- Supported to access, succeed in, and progress from, higher education.
- Receive high quality academic experience and their interests are protected while they study or in the event of provider, campus or course closure.
- Able to progress into employment or further study, and their qualifications hold their value over time.
- Receive value for money.
The roles
At the OfS, we want to be driven by evidence. Data and analysis inform our effective, efficient and intelligent regulation in the student interest and we use a range of data science and analytics techniques to illuminate trends, solve problems and provide evidence for a range of projects which contribute to these aims.
DFA work collaboratively, on a range of tasks and projects which reflect the priorities of the organisation as they evolve and as an assistant analyst you could work on a variety of these. Whether you are writing code to implement the data specifications informing the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), collecting data from higher education providers, calculating their funding allocations, applying a range of analytical techniques to explore National Student Survey responses, or ensuring we have the data we need on a secure platform to conduct our analysis, your work will be interesting and important. And those are just a few of our current projects.
You will use Python and/or SAS to apply a range of analytical and statistical techniques to a set of unique data, and will support the production and quality assurance of experimental and official statistics. Some projects provide opportunities to use SQL, Tableau, Power BI or in-house software. You will also be communicating with colleagues, providers and other users externally (through publications), to share understanding of our methods and data publications, and to ensure that data and analysis findings can be used effectively.
To find out more about some of the work that analysts in DFA do to support the aims of the OfS, visit our website
Data and analysis - Office for Students.
About you
To succeed in the assistant analyst roles, you will have:
- Strong first year marks for the degree you are currently working towards in a numerate discipline (in particular, in statistics, data analysis or computing modules): this is a one year sandwich placement, so you need to be a current student wishing to undertake a placement starting in July 2024 as part of your degree.
- Logical thinking, and excellent numerical skills.
- Some experience of data analysis and the ability to present and visualise data in a meaningful way: this may include projects and assignments required through your degree programme.
- Experience of using analytical programming (such as Maple, Minitab, Matlab, JAVA, Python, R, SPSS or SAS). While some knowledge of programming is essential, these are placement roles, so we don’t require knowledge of any specific language. If you’ve already got experience of Python or SAS please include this in your application.
- Attention to detail and an interest in learning how to manage data-based projects, including identifying risk and appropriate data collection processes, and using effective quality assurance approaches.
- Ability to communicate clearly with those who are not data experts, communicating data and technical details, and engaging with policy issues to propose how data could be used to support them.
- Experience of working well within a team, sharing knowledge, and working cooperatively.
- Ability to work flexibly and manage your own time across a range of tasks.
Working for us
The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background. We’re looking for skilled, committed people who care about students and their experience of higher education. Join us and you’ll be part of an energetic, forward-looking organisation with high ambitions and big opportunities for our people.
We will provide a comprehensive programme of training and support to help you develop the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the assistant analyst roles. From support for your own personal development, to developing or enhancing your technical skills, you’ll be supported to meet your learning needs in these placements.
Working arrangements
Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that flexibility can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. These are full time roles, with some flexibility to work at a minimum 0.9fte.
If you have any questions about our placement scheme please contact Shannon Corbishley, Senior Personal Assistant
shannon.corbishley@officeforstudents.org.uk
, 0117 931 7346 or Becki Witts, Business Support Manager Rebecca.witts@officeforstudents.org.uk
, 0117 931 7015. Closing date for applications: 4 February 2024
Interviews: w/c 26 February 2023
