I provided support to a number of projects, including the AECEDE (Australian Early Childhood Educational Development Experience Research Project) and the AEDC (Australian Educational Development Census (AEDC). Aspects of the role included running email distribution campaigns to in-scope schools, managing requests for use of AEDC data requests, reviewing proposed third party publications making use of AEDC data, specifying programming requirements, and liaising with clients, stakeholders and external agencies.

NatCen Social Research is the UK’s leading independent social research institute. In my seven years with the organisation I contributed greatly to a range of research projects within the Health Group. Examples include the analysis and chapter writing for Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England study and the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity study, but my main contribution was to the Health Survey for England (HSE), a long-standing national scale continuous bio-social survey concerning the health and lifestyles of the English population. I was a key player on multiple sections of the HSE, including monitoring progress of fieldwork on one year’s survey, whilst planning the following year’s survey and preparing the report covering the preceding year. A key part of the role was the need for effective communication with others, both colleagues (e.g. other researchers, operations, telephones unit) and external collaborators (e.g. government, academic), to keep the project progressing. I also had line management responsibility for two researchers within the Health group. Specific aspects of the role at NatCen included writing tender proposals, questionnaire development, piloting new measures, gaining ethical approval, coordinating questionnaire programming, developing briefing documents for interviewers and nurses, and delivering briefings, statistical analysis of survey data making extensive use of SPSS, and report writing and presentation of results to sponsors and other stakeholders.

I worked on research projects and evaluations in the areas of education policy, particularly relating to young people aged 16-18. Examples include an ESRC funded project on Young People in Jobs Without Training and the Evaluation of the Activity and Learning Agreements Pilots (DCFS). My responsibilities included tender writing and seeking funding opportunities (e.g. British Academy), carrying out policy reviews, questionnaire design, conducting interviews both individual and in group settings with participants and a range of stakeholders, leading case studies in a number of areas, analysing quantitative and qualitative research data, production of reports and presentation of findings

The position involved working as part of a team which researched key areas of social policy including the large scale evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots (DfES) and the Employers’ and Service Providers’ Responses to the Disability Discrimination Act (DWP). My responsibilities included questionnaire design, management of large-scale data sets, data analysis including descriptive and multivariate analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal data and the production of reports and presentations. I published academic papers and presented at a number of seminars and external conferences.

I was responsible for handling a range of market research projects within the Quantitative and Qualitative Departments. Through the role I gained project management experience including project design, questionnaire design, conducting interviewer briefings, data analysis, report writing and presenting findings in a fast paced environment. My qualitative experience included conducting focus groups and in-depth interviews together with subsequent analysis using Nvivo.

At NatCen Social Research I was involved in a number of large scale projects including the Health Survey for England and National Survey of NHS Patients. I gained experience of working in a high quality research environment and an understanding of the research process.