Intern social research opportunity
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The People and Work Unit is seeking a community research intern to support their work with community organizations facing socio-economic challenges in Wales. The intern will conduct research, provide evaluation support, and help these organizations identify their information needs, starting in January 2014 with a salary of £14,527. Applications are due by November 13th, and candidates should email a letter and CV to specific contacts within the organization.
Intern social research opportunity
- 1. Community Research Intern If you are interested in applying to the People and Work Unit for this post, please read the following document carefully and then email (by November 13th), james.hall@peopleandworkunit.org.uk and copy your email to sarah.lloydjones@peopleandwork.org.uk. Your letter should outline why you feel that you would be a good person for the work, and provide any background information you feel may help us to understand what you have to offer as an intern. Please also attach your CV. Introduction The People and Work Unit has been short-listed to receive a funding award from the Rank Foundation for an intern to work with us for one year. If we can find the right candidate we (as an organization) will be interviewed alongside that candidate by Rank’s Time to Shine coordinator on December 9th . There is a 50% chance of success. The award will cover a fulltime wage of £14,527. In the following sections, we outline the context for the internship – the role of the People and Work Unit and the ways in which we hope internship would benefit the Unit and the intern. The People and Work Unit The People and Work Unit is an independent charity and a company limited by guarantee that was set up nearly thirty years ago in the wake of a study looking at how communities changed as the steel industry in South Wales contracted. The vision of the Trustees then has shaped our work ever since - that people, families and communities are healthier, happier and more empowered when they are in work. They identified that because the labour market is constantly changing, people, and the structures that support them to access that work, need to keep changing too. The Unit is founded on the principle that education and learning is the primary tool for enabling people to adapt and respond to these changes.
- 2. The People and Work Unit operates in two core ways. It undertakes commissioned research and evaluation work for the public and third sectors, focusing on education, learning and the individual’s or community’s capacity to benefit from these. The Unit also raises funds, primarily from charitable foundations, to undertake action-research based project work. This approach works with people to explore issues that affect them, using reflective practices to review the work being done and learn from it, and embedding that learning into the work as we go along. For further information on the People and Work Unit go to www.peopleandworkunit.org.uk. Over the last few years our experience of project work, and requests for support from a range of community organisations, has led us increasingly to work with community based groups and organisations to explore what can be done to build their capacity and resilience and reduce their over-reliance and, in some cases, dependency upon the state. The internship would help us develop this evolution of work. It would build our capacity to both help community based organisations and understand what support they need. This, in turn, would enable us to work with county voluntary councils and other support organisations to help build the capacity of this vital sector. The community and voluntary sectors in Wales The Unit is strongly aware of an over reliance in the community and voluntary sectors in Wales on the public sector, not just for funding but for shaping what work is done and with whom. We are currently undertaking a small research exercise to identify the barriers to community and voluntary sector independence in Wales. This internship would also help us to take this work forward. The voluntary sector is usually funded to address the most intransigent social, educational and economic problems in Wales, including inequalities, poverty, chronic and debilitating health issues, anti-social behaviour and the breakdown of community cohesion. However, despite being tasked with tackling these underlying problems in Welsh society, the sector has very little access to analyses of what works, with whom and when, or evidence based guidance on how to make a difference. In addition, voluntary organisations often approach the work they do having agreed to work to pre-set targets (numbers of people doing basic skills course etc.), which limit the scope for trying new approaches. Over the last year we
- 3. have had five organisations approach us to ask for help with research, evaluation or ideas for tackling underlying problems, such as patterns of family disengagement with school. The experience has demonstrated to us that there is a need for support for groups and organisations working in some of the poorest communities in Wales to help them: identify practice in other areas or settings that they could learn from; access financial support beyond the public sector (e.g. from charitable trusts); evaluate their work. This is the key area where we want the intern to work with us. We want an intern to help build our capacity, helping us to develop and then disseminate a feasible approach to supporting community organisations to use information and evaluation more effectively in their work. Our project workers and our partners learned from our previous intern’s work how valuable it was to have someone who could feed statistics and analysis of information, drawn from sources such as Census, the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, the National Pupil Database for Wales and the Department for Work and Pensions, in an understandable and tailored way, into planning processes. Our own project staff, and those of our partners reported better understanding of the needs of their communities, valuing having richer information about the scale and nature of problems they identified from anecdotal evidence and personal experience, and of the progress they were making in tackling often very complex problems. This enhanced both the effectiveness and credibility of their work. The plan would be for the Intern to work with five community groups over one year. These would be groups that have already approached us or that have shown an interest in our work. With support from our project manager, James Hall, the Intern would discuss with the groups what they were doing, the context they were working in and identify what they were trying to achieve, and then identify with these groups their information needs. The intern would then, with support from the People and Work Unit’s research team, respond as the group needs and wants. This could include seeking out the information they need to plan or develop their work, or showing them how to do so themselves; providing training on how to capture the changes they are making, or adding temporary capacity by doing some direct evaluation
- 4. work; and brokering and building their links with ‘experts’ in their field including academics and people working in other areas of the UK. In addition, the Intern will be given the opportunity of working on one or two high profile research or evaluation studies being run by the People and Work Unit, enabling them to experience work at an all-Wales policy level. The intern will gain from this work by: honing applied research skills that match information to identified need; gaining a broad insight into the work of community organisations and good contacts across a range of these; making contacts across academic and voluntary sector agencies that work with community organisations across the UK; and an enhanced CV that will include work on prestigious Welsh Government contracts. The internship will start in January 2014 for one year. Job Description Salary - £14,527 Hours – 37.5 per week Holidays – 25 plus Bank holidays Reports to – Projects Manager Job Description Social/educational research intern operating as a member of a small research team. Job Purpose: To undertake a research and evaluation programme as described in the ‘Time to Shine’ project outline. Specifically, to work with five community groups or organisations to identify
- 5. how research and evaluation could support and develop their work; explore the role of actionresearch with each; provide research and evaluation help to meet that need; and review the impact of this work. General To ensure that the Unit is represented in a positive manner to the general public and to all other agencies, public bodies and the media. To work to a programme agreed with your line manager and the funder including meeting reporting requirements To undertake any training identified and agreed by your line manager To undertake tasks as identified by the Unit’s Head of Research To represent the People and Work Unit on working groups, planning groups and committees where appropriate. Other To undertake any additional duties that may be required by the Board Person Specification: Research Intern Essential A commitment to the processes and ethics of action-research and/or evaluation Experience of qualitative and/or quantitative research methods An understanding of, and empathy with, the socio-economic problems facing Welsh communities. Ideally the candidate will have experience of working or volunteering in community settings.
- 6. The ability to communicate clearly and effectively in writing and orally to a wide range of audiences A high level of self-management skills, including time management IT literate Qualified at least to degree level Desirable An interest in pursuing a post-graduate qualification Ability to work through the medium of the Welsh language Understanding/experience of the Welsh policy context in education, lifelong learning and/or society Ability to drive and access to a car (mileage allowance of 40p a mile will be paid)