Government Social Research
University careers advisors from around the UK visited Whitehall on 4th July to find out about careers in the Government Social Research service (GSR). Over 30 including careers advisors from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were welcomed at the Cabinet Office by Sue Duncan, Chief Government Social Researcher and director of the Government Social Research Unit (GSRU), for the opportunity to network with each other and hear from representatives of GSR.
Sue outlined the nature and purpose of GSR, whose members work increasingly closely with other government analysts and policy civil servants as well as the wider research community of universities and research institutes around the UK and across the world. There are over 1000 members of GSR who work in 20 government departments and devolved administrations. Sue encouraged anyone with a strong interest in social policy, the policy-making process and research methods to consider a career in GSR.
Rebecca Laffineur, Career and Professional Development Advisor in GSRU gave a presentation describing what defines a career in GSR, what GSR looks for in potential recruits and what GSR can offer students who are interested in joining. GSR members provide 'analysis for policy' and get involved with how government policies are designed, delivered and evaluated at every stage of the policy-making process. Rebecca quoted Tony Blair, Prime Minister as having stated:
'Strategic policy making is a professional discipline in itself involving serious analysis of the current state of affairs, scanning future trends and seeking out developments elsewhere to generate options'
Rebecca also explained how students would be assessed against their ability or 'competence' to do particular things such as 'communicating with impact' and 'critical analysis and decision making'. GSR is preparing to modernise and standardise recruitment using a new framework of nine competencies. For more information on these topics take a look at the recruitment pages of the GSR website.
After a networking lunch, Phil Davies, Deputy Director of GSRU introduced the afternoon session. Phil explained how GSR is developing to meet current challenges in terms of recruitment, professional development and the application of new methods, ideas and approaches to research, analysis and evaluation. Phil stressed the importance GSR places on working collaboratively with academics and others in the field of research worldwide in order to provide the best research evidence to support policy making.
Phil introduced four GSR members who had volunteered to give the careers advisors first hand accounts of what it is like working in GSR. Follow the links below to see what they said:
All the GSR members highlighted the extensive training and professional development opportunities available to them in GSR, and described both the rewards and frustrations of their jobs as well as their aspirations for their future careers.
The careers advisors asked the speakers a number of questions and a complete list of the questions and answers will be published on the GSR website soon.
Feedback from people attending this event has been extremely positive and as a result it is hoped that GSRU will organise a similar event next year. Thanks are due to all the speakers who gave up their time to prepare and deliver presentations and to all the careers advisors that attended whose encouragement is important to so many students.
For more information please email Rob Reynolds in GSRU.