Professional Economist Review

I work as an analyst in the State Pension age Review team. This involves analysing life expectancy trends, the fiscal sustainability of the pension system, the ageing of the population and other demographic pressures from fertility and migration trends. This also involved using regression analysis to evaluate past State Pension age policies and quantifying how impacts were felt by those affected by a higher State Pension age. We then had to weigh all of these evidence sources to determine the future State Pension age timetable making sure that rises in the State Pension age are both intergenerationally fair and affordable.

This programme upskilled my programming skills as it involved lots of SAS data analysis using the Labour Force Survey, Family Resources Survey, Understanding Society dataset and the Planning and Preparing for Later Life Survey. This boosted my skill in longitudinal data analysis looking at tracking how people's behaviour changes in the run-up to retirement. It also upskilled me in regression analysing using SAS programming language and policy evaluation using difference-in-difference methodology. As well as programming, my presentation skills came on massively as I presented data analysis and trends to seniors both inside and outside of DWP.

I really enjoy my programme. I have had the opportunity to work on two massively live issues in the UK government, the first being forecasting Universal Credit expenditure during the height of COVID19 and the second being the State Pension age Review 2023. These were incredibly high profile work topics that gained me high senior exposure and exposure to many interesting policy areas and data trends. I've enjoyed seeing the impact of my work and how it affects real people. The study side of the programme was also set out really well and benefited me both as an economist and as a government analyst.

It was mostly well organised. I was always aware of key milestones, exam times and exam scope. The structure of the programme with a change in roles at the 2-year point worked really well for my development needs. Some of the more important milestones towards the end of the scheme were less well set out but this wasn't particularly surprising given we are the first cohort and this scheme had not been done before, I'm sure this will improve for future cohorts.

I receive lots of support from various channels within my employ. I hold weekly chats with my line manager where about half of the time is spent discussing work and the other half spent discussing any support/development needs on the apprenticeship side of things. We also receive support from grade managers across the department who inform us of key developments we need to be aware of.

I was always able to access support readily and easily when I required support on the study side of the apprenticeship. I had regular 30-day review with my apprenticeship advisor who listened to any questions or queries I had at that point in the module and provided me with key information as and when I needed it. The professors themselves were also generally responsive via email to any clarification questions I had over the module and outlined what would/wouldn't be needed at exam time as well. This was helpful.

The study and employment parts of the apprenticeship do not always go hand in hand, but that is natural in a degree as wide ranging as economics. However, the benefit of this is it gives us a nice break from the economics we do in our day job and a chance to learn about the wider subject field. When modules and the day-job do map onto each other, for example when I was completing the public economics module or learning about the technical side of econometrics, these were off massive help to my work and definitely increased the quality and robustness of my output.

Yes, there are loads of different societies that support both well-being and professional development. At the Manchester Office I worked from, we had a bake-off society where once a month 3 analysts would bring in some baking and the rest of the analysts would enjoy these bakes and judge them - this gave everyone a nice morale boost. There is also a Manchester-office 6-a-side team where we either play amongst ourselves on Thursdays after work or against other departments which is really cool. Professionally there is also an economics network for my division where we keep up to date with current economic affairs and also share learning from our own roles to showcase where and how economics is being used within the division.

Yes

I've found it to be an immensely positive and interesting place to work. Both the actual individual roles we each do and the learning/material/courses shared by the GES themselves, as well as its conferences. It supports us to be great economists and provides us the scaffolding through which we can better our careers as government economists.

I would say to just allow your natural passion for economics to shine through your written and verbal responses ; explaining how and why you are attracted to the economics within the area you're applying to and what theory you can bring to the role to support conclusions and analysis. Keep up to date with the current affairs surrounding the area you're applying to, reach out to current members on LinkedIn and be prepared to continually look for innovative and new ways to do the status quo.