*This role is available to current PGR students to support career development*

• Start date: ASAP
• End date: July 2022
• Hours: 14 hours per week. Hours can be delivered flexibly across the working week.
• Rate of pay: £18.57
• Location: Remote working with an option to hotdesk with BDFI in 1 Cathedral Square.

The telecoms industry hosts a plethora of fascinating career opportunities for graduates with digital skills. But currently, talented graduates with AI, ML, software development or other relevant skills aren’t applying for roles in the industry.

TM Forum (an alliance of 850+ global companies working together in the telecoms industry) have formed a ‘Talent Consortia’ with several organisations to find out why and design strategies to redress the challenge. Bristol Digital Futures Institute are proud to be supporting the underlying research in partnership with the consortia.

We’re looking with a researcher from either a technical discipline with an understanding of digital skills OR social sciences background to undertake a short research project to help inform the next steps for the industry.

You will:

• Undertake interviews with current graduates in up to 3 countries to understand their career motivations and explore the possible reasons for low entry rates to the telecoms industry
• Use this insight to inform the development of a survey to approximately 1,000 students or recent graduates (from the UK and beyond)
• Promote and distribute the survey
• Analyse the results
• Produce a short final report with key findings, for presentation to TM Forum and its members
• Have your report feed into a wider digital skills project led by Ruzanna Chitchyan (Associate Professor of Software Engineering), with opportunities for later publication

This is a fantastic opportunity to further develop your research skills in an applied setting, make connections with a global telecoms organisation and it’s members, and gain insight into careers in the industry. As a researcher within BDFI, you will also have the opportunity to work with and alongside the team and explore opportunities to link with a wider digital futures research agenda as part of the Institute’s £100m programme.

• We’re particularly keen to hear from you if:
• You are a current PGR student with an interest in the digital and/or telecoms sector
• You’re self-motivated with good attention to detail
• Have either a technical understanding of telecoms/ AI/ ML/ computer science/ big data, OR have some experience of interview or survey design methods.
• Are capable of basic statistical analysis of large datasets

A second language is desirable but not essential.

How to apply

Please send a CV to bdfi-partnerships@bristol.ac.uk using ‘Digital Skills Researcher - PGR student Opportunity’ in the email title,  by 31^st March 2022.