1 / 45

Working as a Statistical Researcher/Methodologist in ONS

Join the ONS, the UK's largest independent producer of official statistics. Contribute to social and economic policy-making through accurate data collection and analysis. Work in teams specializing in data collection methodology, sample design, non-response, processing/editing/imputation, demographic methods, and small area estimation.

gauthier
Download Presentation

Working as a Statistical Researcher/Methodologist in ONS

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Working as a Statistical Researcher/Methodologist in ONS Iain Dove 21st November 2018

  2. Who we are? • Office for • National Statistics

  3. What is ONS? • The UK's largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK. • The ONS is a non-ministerial government department so that the staff, including the Director, remain as civil servants but without being under direct ministerial control. • The ONS functions as the executive office of the National Statistician, who is also the UK Statistics Authority's Chief Executive and principal statistical adviser to the UK's National Statistics Institute, and the 'Head Office' of the Government Statistical Service (GSS).

  4. UK Statistics Authority • An independent body, directly accountable to Parliament • The UK Statistics Authority has two main functions: • Oversight of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – its executive office • Independent scrutiny (monitoring and assessment) of all official statistics produced in the UK.

  5. Work of the ONS • The work of the ONS covers the collection of data and the analysis and publication of statistics covering the economy, population, and society of the UK. • Where data is broken down by geographical area, this is usually done by the areas defined in the ONS geographical coding system.

  6. Where the data are coming from? The principal areas of data collection include: • Agriculture and Environment • Business and Energy • Children, Education and Skills • Crime and Justice • Economy • Government • Health and Social Care • Labour Market • People and Places • Population • Travel and Transport

  7. Where are we? Charge: The collection and publication of statistics related to the economy, the population, and the structure of business and society in the UK. • Site Offices: • London • Titchfield, Hampshire • Newport Gwent

  8. Where are we? Significance - What’s the data used for? Social and economic policy-making: To drive decisions on just about everything in your life you can think of! • Site Offices: • London • Titchfield, Hampshire • Newport Gwent

  9. Where are we?

  10. Where are we?

  11. Structure of ONS

  12. Directorates in ONS • Economic Statistics Transformation • National Accounts and Economic Statistics • Population and Public Policy Operations • Population and Public Policy Transformation • Public Policy Analysis • Digital Services and Technology • Business Services and Development • Data Science Campus • Finance • Methods, Data and Research

  13. Teams within Methodology… Data Collection Methodology • Accurate estimates are crucial for the appropriate distribution of Government funds. • How do we ensure that data collection instruments (questionnaires) are fit for purpose and collect good quality, accurate data? • Are all of the questions interpreted correctly by the respondents? • How do we test participant’s interaction with online questionnaires on mobile devices?

  14. Teams within Methodology… Sample Design and Estimation • Accurate estimates are crucial for the appropriate distribution of Government funds. • How do you select a representative sample of a population? • Census – How do you count everyone in the UK on one night? • How do you estimate and correct for overcount/undercount? • How do you evaluate the quality of your estimates?

  15. Teams within Methodology… The Non Response Centre • Accurate estimates are crucial for the appropriate distribution of Government funds. • How do you identify the causes of non-response? • How do you adjust estimates to account for data that is not missing at random? • How do you tell if data is missing at random, missing completely at random, or contains non-response bias? • How do you allocate resources to counteract non-response bias?

  16. Teams within Methodology… Processing, Edit and Imputation • Accurate estimates are crucial for the appropriate distribution of Government funds. • How do you detect inconsistencies in the data and what is the best way to correct them? • How do you do deal with missing values in the data when it comes to analyses? • How do you ensure the preservation of joint distributions when correcting for inconsistent or missing data?

  17. Teams within Methodology… Demographic Methods • Accurate estimates are crucial for the appropriate distribution of Government funds. • How do you accuratelyestimate the size of a population and how it has changed over time? • How do you integrate alternative data sources to measure the quality of your estimates? • How do you accurately measure transient UK populations or migration to and from abroad?

  18. Teams within Methodology… Small Area Estimation • Accurate estimates are crucial for the appropriate distribution of Government funds. • How do you provide accurate estimates of small domains or small areas when your sample is too small for traditional methods? • How do you measure the quality of those estimates? • How do you develop a statistical methodology that remains robust and reliable with small sample sizes?

  19. Teams within Methodology… Big Data • Accurate estimates are crucial for the appropriate distribution of Government funds. • Where big data fit in the ONS work?: enhance the reliability of estimates using Big Data in the same way administrative data or census data can be used together with sampling • investigating the methodological and technological issues • investigating new data sources

  20. Teams within Methodology… Data Visualisation • Presenting statistical information to people with little or no mathematical skills is crucial to the success of all NSIs. • How do we explain difficult concepts to a non-technical audience? • How do we present data in the clearest possible way to the general public? • Which information do we include to tell ‘the data story’ in a neutral and unbiased way? • Visit visual.ons.gov.uk to see some of their recent articles

  21. Teams within Methodology… Data linkage methodology • ONS needs to utilise all data that are available. Often the information is available but split into several places • How do we link multiple sources of data? • How do we ensure that we get as many links between data as possible not missed? (minimised missed links) • How do we ensure the links we do create are correct? (minimise incorrect links) • How do we link as much as possible without incorrectly affecting the analysis?

  22. Quality of the linkage Dataset 1 Dataset 2 Linked file Quality depends on: Incorrect links Missed matches

  23. Teams within Methodology… Statistical Disclosure Control • ONS must protect confidentiality of responses and comply with relevant legislation: Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998, Statistics and Registration Services Act (SRSA) 2007, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016 • How do you ensure confidentiality of respondents when the data is published? • How do you identify records that are at risk of disclosure? • How do you manipulate the data in order to prevent disclosure but without changing the results from the data?

  24. Statistical Disclosure Control Aims • To protect confidentiality/privacy of respondents information • Comply with Data Protection Act and Statistics and Services Registration Act • Maintain public trust in ONS • Stay out of jail

  25. Example of Disclosure You personally know 3 people in this survey: “A”: Married 28 year old “B”: Single 22 year old “C”: Married 24 year old How much do each of them earn?

  26. Protecting against Disclosure

  27. ONS: Once you’re in……. • A 37 hour working week with full flexi-time • An excellent pension with a ‘death in service’ • Fast-track career development • Ongoing mathematical/statistical training (e.g., MSc modules via Southampton University and the RSS) • National and International workshops & conferences • Lateral transfers to jobs in the wider GSS (e.g., treasury, agriculture, forestry, etc.

  28. What is RAS? • RAS: ‘Research, Analysis and Statistics’ • RAS is an ONS term that refers to members of the analytical professions – Statisticians, Economists, Social Researchers and Operational Researchers. • Other professions within ONS are Operational Delivery, Human Resources, Finance, IT…there are others!

  29. What is RAS? • Who are RAS staff?

  30. What is RAS? • Where do RAS staff work? • RAS staff work across various directorates • Social and Analysis • National Accounts & Economic Statistics • Data Collection • Census Transformation Project • Office of Chief Economic Adviser • Digital Services & Technology • Methodology, Data, Research • Teams within divisions can consist of a mix of the RAS professions (and non-RAS staff)

  31. What is RAS? • How did you get here? • RAS staff are recruited via civil service jobs: • EO grade • HEO grade • Research Officers (RO) • Statistical Officers (SO) • Assistant Methodologists (AM) • SEO grade • Senior Research Officers (SRO) • Senior Statistical Officers (Senior SO) • Methodologist (M)

  32. Government Professions • Starting a RAS post entitles you to formal membership of one of the professional groups. • Membership benefits include attendance to professional conferences, building network of contacts across Government and ease of movement around government departments for future career development

  33. Government Professions • Statistician (GSG) • Social Researcher (GSR) • Operational Researcher (GOR) • Economist (GES)

  34. Career Development Managed moves • HEO specialists are encouraged to move posts laterally every 18-30 months (longer for SEO/SRO) • Benefits: • Gain experience in different business areas and under different management chains • Moves can be within or between divisions and directorates • Develop and broaden skills and experience • It is possible to move from one speciality to another, depending on qualifications and experience.

  35. Career Development • Promotion

  36. Career Development Mentoring • Purpose: • To provide staff (both mentee and mentor) with access to an additional learning and development opportunity. • To encourage a culture of sharing and openness across divisions. • To increase the opportunity for sharing best practices across divisions. • To benefit from a highly effective alternative means of learning, as opposed to formal training courses. • Joining the scheme is entirely voluntary • Mentor outside of Mentees’ line management

  37. Training • Civil Service Learning • https://civilservicelearning.civilservice.gov.uk/ • https://civilservicelearning.civilservice.gov.uk/corporate-induction • ‘Learning Academy’ • Short courses and Statistical Analyst (SA) Scheme • http://intranet.ons.statistics.gov.uk/task/learning-at-ons/learning-programmes/ • Statistical Computing Training • Government Profession specific courses

  38. Training • RSS Courses • RSS Ordinary • RSS Higher Certificate • MSc in Data Analytics for Government • Delivered by University of Southampton

  39. Conferences RAS Related Events – some examples • Annual Young Statisticians Meeting (YSM) • specifically designed for career young statisticians, organised by career young statisticians • excellent opportunity to present your own research in a friendly atmosphere, discover a variety of other statistical topics currently being researched and network amongst your peers • Royal Statistical Society (RSS) International Conferences • Young Statisticians Section (YSS) of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) (for ‘career young’ statisticians) • British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) Annual Conference

  40. Diversity & Inclusion, Social Responsibility

  41. Diversity

  42. Great reasons to work in ONS • Interesting work which is mostly problem solving • Clearly see that your work has an impact on the public good • Work anytime from 7am-7pm to make 37 hours a week • Lots of training/learning opportunity, including an MSc, funded by ONS (or not!) • Easy to move teams and learn new things • Good number of diversity groups and initiatives across the office

  43. Good reasons to work in ONS • Some travel for attending and presenting at conferences my work in different scientific conferences (expenses paid by ONS of course!) and work with amazing people of all ages • Working with great people • Possible to work from home • Flexi is worth mentioning twice, most people work extra hours and use them as extra days off

  44. Application Process • Civil service jobs • https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi • https://www.gov.uk/guidance/a-brief-guide-to-competencies • We usually ask for a CV and covering letter. Like most applications, you should use the S.T.A.R. system to show us your skills

  45. Any Questions? ? Contact email: • Iain.dove@ons.gov.uk

More Related