Social Research Undergraduate Placement

at  Welsh Assembly Government Communication Centre Home

ID 2141
The Welsh Government operates name-free recruitment. The recruiting panel will not see personal information such as a candidate’s name and address during the sifting process. This policy is in line with our commitment to end bias and promote equality and diversity.

VACANCY DETAILS

Vacancy title
Social Research Undergraduate Placement
Closing date
10/02/2025, 16:00
Advertising basis
Placement
Actual starting salary
£24,421
Salary range or pay band
Team Support £24,421 to £28,246
Allowances
No
Work pattern
Full time (not suitable for candidates who wish to work on a part time or job share basis)
Duration
50 weeks
Group
Corporate Services and Inspectorates
Directorate
3 x Knowledge and Analytical Services; 2 x Communities and Tackling Poverty
Branch
1 x Housing Research; 1 x Corporate Research; 1 x Education and Skills Research; 1 x Children, Families and Childcare Research; 1 x Equality Evidence Unit
Location (s)
Pan Wales
Purpose of post
The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. Analysts play a key role in providing high quality evidence to support policy making and the Welsh Government more broadly.
Three posts will be based in the Social Research and Information Division, specifically withing the Housing Research, Corporate Research and Education and Skills Research Teams.
The Social Research and Information Division is a core part of the government’s analytical function. The division comprises around 80 social researchers who work closely with policy and other analysts (e.g. statisticians, economists) to provide analytical advice and evidence to support key policy decisions in devolved areas such as education, health and the environment.
Two posts are available in the Equality, Poverty and Children’s Evidence Support Division, specifically in the Children, Families and Childcare research team and the Equality Evidence Unit team.
The Welsh Government’s Equality, Race and Disability Evidence Units, based in the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division have been recently established. There are three units: the Equality Evidence Unit, the Race Disparity Evidence Unit and the Disability Disparity Evidence Unit. The work of the Units will include investigating long-standing problems underpinned by sufficiently robust statistics and research across the Welsh Government and the wider public sector in Wales; improving the collection of data; and delivering innovative ways to address ongoing evidence needs relating to equalities and socio-economic disadvantage. Unit staff are a mixture of analysts (including social researchers and statisticians) and policy officials. Social researchers in Equality, Poverty, Children’s Evidence and Support Division also support the research needs of policy areas including social justice, children, childcare and families.
These posts are open to undergraduate students on a sandwich year placement between their second and third year of study. Welsh Government are looking for applications from diverse candidates who can demonstrate leadership qualities and bring fresh skills, lived experiences and perspectives to our work.
Welsh Government are committed to being an anti-racist organisation, and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are under-represented in the Civil Service in Wales. Welsh Government committed to supporting all staff to thrive in an inclusive working environment.
The successful candidates will be based either in the Social Research and Information Division or the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support division, working closely with social researchers to support the development and delivery of different types of research projects. The responsibilities of the successful candidates will vary depending on the team; and the exact posts will be dependent on the interests, skills and experiences of the successful candidates.
There are five posts available, three are based in the Social Research and Information Division and two are based in the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division. Our aim is to fill posts in the following teams:
Post one: in the Housing Research Branch within the Social Research and Information Division
This role will be based within the housing research team but will involve working closely with researchers on a wide range of topic areas across the climate change and rural affairs directorate policy areas, including housing, the environment and rural affairs. The role will involve assisting with the design, delivery, analysis and reporting of primary and secondary research. Likely tasks include conducting evidence reviews, developing and administering small-scale online surveys, and assisting with research development. There will be opportunities to deliver corporate responsibilities, such as providing administrative support for research evidence planning and supporting the Housing Research Team.
Post two: in the Corporate Research Branch within the Social Research and Information Division
This role will involve research and analysis using a range of methods and sources of data to help inform improvements to the way the Welsh Government works. This will involve using both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods on data gathered by the team and the organisation. Additionally, the role involves assisting with the designing, carrying out and reporting of primary research projects with Welsh Government staff and stakeholders. The role will also involve conducting evidence reviews and developing social research best practice guides for the team. There will also be an opportunity to assist with corporate responsibilities such as producing bulletins for the Social Research and Information Division.
Post three: in the Education, Skills and Welsh Language Research Branch within the Social Research and Information Division
The branch covers education and skills research in both school and post compulsory education. This role will work with both post-16 education and skills research and on projects that are cross-cutting with schools education research. The role will involve working closely with researchers and policy officials across a range of topic areas. The placement’s objective is to provide research support to a number of Welsh Government research and evaluation projects. The successful candidate will need to contribute to the development and delivery of different types of research projects, such as literature reviews and evaluations. This role will include assisting with the design, management and reporting of social research. There will also be an opportunity to assist with corporate responsibilities.
Post four: in the Equality Evidence Unit within the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division.
This role will involve working closely with researchers and statisticians on cross cutting equality, ethnicity and disability evidence across a range of topic areas. This includes providing research support to the multi-disciplinary team of researchers, statisticians and policy officials. The role will involve working closely with colleagues to support in drafting evidence reviews, quality assurance of research reports and analytical outputs and providing general administrative support to the equality, race and disability evidence units.
Post five: in the Children, Families and Childcare Research Team within the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division
This post will be based in Children, Families and Childcare Research team and will work closely with researchers in this team to support the design, delivery, analysis and reporting of primary and secondary research. The role holder will also have the chance to work with researchers in other areas of the Equality, Poverty and Children’s Evidence Unit to including the Social Justice Research team to support the overall programme of work.
Key tasks

The key tasks of the successful applicants will depend on which team they are placed with, but will include a combination of the following:

• Supporting with the management and quality assurance of research.
• Assisting with research projects which use qualitative (e.g. in-depth interviews, focus groups – in line with the social model of disability) and quantitative methods (e.g. survey work, statistical analysis, monitoring and reporting information).
• Research design, analysis and synthesis.
• Undertaking literature searches and reviews.
• Liaising with analysts across the Welsh Government.
• Providing administrative support for data collection exercises.
• Preparing reports for publication on the Welsh Government’s social research webpages or for use internally.
• Project management.
• Administrative tasks, such as organising meetings, seminars and events, taking minutes and record keeping.
• Work with the analysts in the team to uphold GSR and GSS standards (such as ethical compliance) alongside relevant legal requirements (such as UK GDPR compliance) across all projects.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement meetings between senior members of the team and other relevant partners within Welsh Government.
• Meet with senior analysts in the team on a regular basis to update on progress with tasks responsible for.

Development opportunities

The posts offer excellent development opportunities, including:

• Learning how social research is commissioned, delivered and used within government and funded bodies (e.g. Natural Resources Wales).
• Developing an understanding of how evidence can help inform and improve policy making and organisational ways of working.
• Developing key skills (such as communications skills, critical thinking and working as part of a team, often to tight deadlines).
• Opportunities to develop an understanding and practical experience of a range of research techniques (such as survey design, conducting interviews, analysis and presentation of findings, report writing and communicating research findings to a non-specialist audience).
• Developing project management skills.
• Attending appropriate courses, conferences and seminars (including courses on quantitative and qualitative analysis).
• Shadowing or working with social researchers, analysts and policy officials from other Welsh Government departments during the placement. There may also be an opportunity to work collaboratively with officials from government-funded bodies.

Other vacancy related information
Confirmation that the successful applicant has passed their second year of study will be required before the placement can start.
The placements will run from summer 2025 – summer 2026.

As part of the application process, you will need to complete an application form against each of the required behaviours and technical criteria stated in this advert (up to a maximum of 250 words for each

• Changing and Improving - Review ways of working and suggest improvements, supporting colleagues with any new procedures. (Assessed via application form)
• Making Effective Decisions - Use guidance, analyse relevant information and ask colleagues for input to support decision making. Identify and deal with any errors or gaps in information before making a decision. (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Working Together - Proactively contribute to the work of the whole team and remain open to taking on new and different roles. Listen to alternative perspectives and needs, responding sensitively and checking understanding where necessary. (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Delivering at Pace: Always work with focus and pace to get the job done on time and to a high standard. Use own knowledge and expertise to organise work. (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Technical 1 - Broad awareness of how social research can be used to inform decisions in government, including what equality and diversity issues should be considered. (Assessed via application form and a pre-prepared presentation at online interview)
• Technical 2 – Experience of design and/or delivery of quantitative and qualitative research (e.g. interviewing, focus groups, surveys, quantitative data analysis). (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Technical 3 - Experience in the interpretation and / or communication of research (e.g. presentation of results, conclusions and/or recommendations). This could include presentation of research in written reports or essays and/or presentations. (Assessed via application form and online interview)

As a minimum, students are required to have an understanding of the principles and skills needed to design and conduct social research. Students should be able to critically evaluate research methods, strategies and data used by social scientists and be able to (with support) undertake and present analysis. Although practical experience of undertaking research is desirable, experience of undertaking a complete independent research project as part of their degree course at the time of application is not required.
As a guide, we recommend that you use the behaviours and technical criteria as headings and aim to write 250 each. Using the “STAR technique” may help you to structure your evidence – information is provided in the Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates pack. Please include how you considered your own or others’ lived experiences where relevant within the evidence provided.
For more information on Civil Service Behaviours and what is required for each grade, please refer to Success Profiles: Civil Service Behaviours.
Candidates successful at sifting stage will be invited to an online interview. A maximum of 16 candidates will progress to interview.
The online interview will take place over Microsoft Teams and will include a presentation and interview questions. The interview will be using various assessment techniques aligned to the Civil Service Success Profiles framework. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. Situational style questions (what would you do if… ?) and past style questions experience (can you give me an example of time when…?) will be used to assess the specified civil service behaviours. In addition, you will also be asked technical questions relevant to the role. Candidates will receive the main interview questions 3 working days in advance of the interview date.
A presentation on Technical 1 will be required at interview. More information will be provided in the invitations to that stage.
We do not accept the use of presentation software to support the presentation, cue cards or prompts are permitted. Presentations will be 5 minutes in length.

• Supporting with the management and quality assurance of research.
• Assisting with research projects which use qualitative (e.g. in-depth interviews, focus groups – in line with the social model of disability) and quantitative methods (e.g. survey work, statistical analysis, monitoring and reporting information).
• Research design, analysis and synthesis.
• Undertaking literature searches and reviews.
• Liaising with analysts across the Welsh Government.
• Providing administrative support for data collection exercises.
• Preparing reports for publication on the Welsh Government’s social research webpages or for use internally.
• Project management.
• Administrative tasks, such as organising meetings, seminars and events, taking minutes and record keeping.
• Work with the analysts in the team to uphold GSR and GSS standards (such as ethical compliance) alongside relevant legal requirements (such as UK GDPR compliance) across all projects.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement meetings between senior members of the team and other relevant partners within Welsh Government.
• Meet with senior analysts in the team on a regular basis to update on progress with tasks responsible for