Government Social Research
25 May 2006: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) publish The employment of social science PhDs in academic and non-academic jobs: research skills and postgraduate training which evaluates the needs of non-academic employers for highly skilled social scientists, and the extent to which social science PhD-holders in such employment are using the skills and knowledge developed during their doctorate.
Commissioned as the companion study to the Demographic Review of UK Social Sciences this report provides clear evidence of demand across a range of employers for the skills and attributes acquired during a social science PhD. It illustrates that PhD holders are highly employable in a number of sectors.
The review, which was conducted by Kate Purcell, Professor of Employment Studies at UWE, and Peter Elias, Professor of Employment Research at the University of Warwick, underlines the crucial importance of equipping UK social scientists with core research and related professional skills from an early stage in their career. Further evidence in this area also identifies the importance of on-going skills development at all stages of the academic life course, including training the trainers of the next generation of social science researchers.
The full report can be viewed on the ESRC
website (PDF, 1.8Mb)