Sarah R Sharp Email & Phone Number

George Square, Glasgow

I am responsible for managing and delivering key digital insight for Skills Development Scotland's online web services. This includes Apprenticeships.scot, Employer Hub (previously Our Skillsforce), Marketplace and the SDS Corporate website. As Scotland’s national skills agency, our customers include school pupils, employers, training providers, stakeholders and internal staff. I produce weekly/monthly analysis reports as well as ad-hoc insight reports detailing key findings and recommendations. This analysis and insight helps to drive business decisions and informs the development of effective processes.I work closely with various teams internally such as the project, marketing, content, data management and corporate teams as well as with external stakeholders and partners. I use online software tools such as Google’s Looker Studio for GA4 analysis, Google Tag Manager/GA4, Microsoft Power Bi, Hotjar and SQL tables to interpret key measurements and therefore better understand the customers who use our web services.Throughout my time in this role, I have worked on numerous qualitative research projects, which plays to my strengths and prior experiences. I have conducted various focus groups with all our customer groups, created surveys, written and recorded interviews and analysed specific customer feedback. This is to better explore the ‘whys’ behind data trends. During a recent review of all tools on our main website My World of Work I identified the main themes in customer feedback which helped inform decisions about the tool’s future.

Waterloo Street, Glasgow

The main purpose of my position was to commission and manage internal/external research projects on behalf of SDS. The research was focused on customer insight and feedback, although it was not limited to this and included policy/equality research.My role involved facilitating focus groups and workshops with key SDS customer groups (specifically customers aged 16-24), supporting internal and external stakeholders, project-managing bespoke presentations and creating research reports/executive summaries. The role also involved liaising with SDS staff at all levels, working with Scottish Stakeholders in the Skills sector, identifying key market trends plus creating and analysing questionnaires/surveys using statistical analysis software packages.I also gained experience in writing literature reviews of specific areas of interest to SDS such as employee engagement research and digital media research. Whilst part of the wider research team I contributed to the development of the customer research plan which was created as a strategy policy to provide support to the wider SDS business.

Pacific Quay, Glasgow

My job was primarily providing research reports and strategy presentations for various departments within the BBC, as part of the Marketing and Audiences team. I created ad-hoc research presentations and worked on qualitative and quantitative research projects using audience data and analysis. This included managing the monthly strategy report which was sent to the Scottish audience council for the BBC, the monthly online report for the senior managers of the online team and a weekly business email updating the director of BBC Scotland and other senior managers on the various projects taking place.I was trained in subscription market research data needed for the position such as Telmar, Infosys, Sage, comScore, Webreporter, Advantedge, Immediacy (for creating and uploading content online) and the BBC’s istats system. I have effective IT skills and was able to manipulate databases and software for analytical purposes. I also worked with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the use of regular reporting of key day-to-day audience data across the Marketing and Audiences team. In addition I project managed the Scotview panel which involved working with a research agency and creating questionnaires and analysing the data in order to create be-spoke strategy reports for various departments. At the beginning of 2011 I volunteered to be involved in an ethnographic research project conducted by an agency on the BBC’s behalf, which gave me a better understanding of different research methodologies.

Renfield Street, Glasgow

Throughout my time at The Herald & Times newspapers, I provided key research support for the advertising, sales and marketing departments. I also worked on various special projects for the editorial department, the s1 websites and the company magazines, such as TGO and their then business magazine Success. Duties included creating in-paper reader surveys, online surveys and managing focus groups for product development/idea testing, providing sourcing to evaluate marketing campaigns, creating monthly market intelligence reports for senior management, creating a quarterly business-to-business newsletter on behalf of the marketing director and day-to-day use of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.I was trained in various subscription market research data needed for the position, which included IMS (for use of NRS and TGI surveys), JICREG, NMR Medialog and SNAP9. I was the facilitator for a market strategy group set up to develop better relationships with business clients. It was also on my initiative that The Herald created new media packs for the use of the marketing and advertising departments, helping to bring in new business. I project managed the content and design, working with various departments to create a successful product. In October 2006 I was presented with an award at work recognising my achievements.

Cathcart, Glasgow & East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire

Duties included database input, call handling skills, customer service, billing, consumption calculation, invoice handling, processing customer accounts and other general enquires.In April 2005 I was part of the administrative complaints initiative set up to help resolve billing complaints more efficiently.

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Film & Media Studies, 2:1

Activities and Societies: The Ski Club, Drama Society, Creative Writing Club (in California), Media Debate Group (in California). My third.

3Rd Year Study As Part Of The Education Abroad Programme, Film/Cinema/Video Studies, 9 Course Units Completed (A-)

Activities and Societies: Member of the creative writing club and the media debate group.

Diploma, Journalism

Professional Freelance Journalism Course; Diploma achieved on completion of all assignments within specified year time frame.

Secondary School, Higher And Standard Grade

Activities and Societies: Classroom assistant (final year), member of the Peer Pressure Group, member of the badminton club, member.