London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership
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Skills and the London Economy is a Collaborative Research Programme between academic economists in KCL I-Lead and the professional economists within the Greater London Authority (GLA). This programme looks to co-create research evidence on the critical role of skills in the ongoing growth of the London Economy. London is a global economic powerhouse, employing 20% of the UK’s workforce. However, the city faces significant challenges, including skills shortages in key sectors such as construction, digital technology, and health and social care. Data from GLA Economics highlights the importance of addressing these skills gaps. The Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) emphasizes the need for training that matches employer demand, ensuring that Londoners can access better jobs and that businesses can find the skilled workers they need.
Within GLA Economics there are four main areas of interest which could be the focus for an intern to make use of GLA data and support from the KCL/GLA team to deliver a report within the internship: (1) a review of best practices in regional growth planning and the relationship between state and local decision making (2) a deep drive into the GLA skills data to provide deeper understanding differential skills attainment across London, the balance of need of technical skills and work on skills forecasting for the capital (3) a critical review of the GLAs growth forecast model for London, focused on Borough level forecasts, to enhance the existing methodology (4) the modelling of the needs within London to support the climate transition, focused on infrastructure and buildings of the capital. In addition, GLA Skills and Employment team is looking to take a deep dive into the London Learner Survey, building a longitudinal data set which can be used to consider how adult learners progress in the capital.
The intern will report to Professor Denise Hawkes and Dr Dragos Radu at King’s Business School. The RA will also be given a named mentor from GLA Economics, the mentor will be selected based on the topic selected by the appointed RA.
The RA will work with GLA Economics datasets to address one of the 5 areas of interest set out above. The choice of the area to work on is for the RA to signal on application. The RA will be provided with a GLA mentor, a professional economist working in the chosen area of interest.
The RA will work collaboratively on the data cleaning, data analysis and forecasting, future model development and by providing input on potentially more complex models. The goals are: to prepare code which can be shared with the GLA team for future repeated data analysis, interpret the results produced for a range of audiences and work on data visualizations for academic and professional publication output. Data Analysis – the RA will work collaboratively on the data analysis, applying regressions, inferential statistics and simple machine learning classification models on the data previously collected (input on more complex models is welcomed). The data include both quantitative and qualitative data (text data). The targets are: prepare code for the data analysis, interpret the results and work on data visualization for publication output.
The final report for the project will consist of a GLA research report which will include a scoping study of the existing GLA datasets and their ability to address the selected topic and a list of recommendations to take the work forward. As a team we would be supportive of the post internship development of an academic paper – should the data analysis have potential to be additionally published as an academic output.
More info: https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/internships/skills-and-the-london-economy-a-collaborative-research-programme-between-i-lead-and-the-greater-london-authority-gla/