Employability by designQ-Step at Manchester

Manchester Q-Step

• Integrated programme of curriculum developments and work placement opportunities to engage and enthuse students in learning quantitative methods

• Sociology, Politics, Philosophy, Social Anthropology, Criminology and Linguistics

The paradox of Quantitative skills

• Employers love them

• Students (think they) hate them

What’s wrong• Can’t do maths?

• Lack of integration– frequently parcelled off to ‘quantitative methods’ or ‘research skills’ module

• Perceived as boring: disconnected from learning the substantive discipline

• Perceived as hard: Stats anxiety • Perceived as alien to real life: lack of ‘real data’ ‘real

applications’ • Perceived as something to be got through and ‘passed’ - very

few go on to pick ‘quants’ options

Re-wiring quantitative skills

Methods

Work Placements Substantive

Curriculum Employers

Making Students part of the DatasetViews of cultural impact of immigration over last 10 years

2011 British Social Attitudes

Summer work placements• Work with organisations –

internal and external• Define a ‘project’• Students apply• Work with careers service

– Interview– Appoint– Place

• Manage expectations• Support everyone• Review

Q-Step summer placements 2014

• 20 projects, 10 organisations; 19 students • Sociology, politics, criminology, linguistics• 6-12 weeks long; generous stipends• Quantitative skills• Real world data, real world research and applications• Not credit bearing• Students produce (at least) a poster as an output – some will

have academic papers, briefing papers, publications, blog posts

Who we are placing students with

• Think tanks

• Polling organisations

• Local government

• Universities

• Data consultancies and services

Who we will also place students with

• International statistical organisations

• Larger companies

• Third sector

• Cooperatives