B2 Assistant Statistician

Overview

Statisticians in Scottish Government are responsible for producing official statistics that provide an accurate, up-to-date, comprehensive and meaningful picture of the economy and society in Scotland that is free from political interference.  We have statisticians working in all parts of Government, from economy to education, from the Census to climate change, from housing to health.

Most statisticians are involved in the design, collection, analysis and publication of statistics.  Statistician roles in Scottish Government are hugely varied and require a range of skills - we are looking for people that are good at working with data and have technical ability in managing data appropriately.  Statisticians also have strong analytical skills to identify the patterns and trends in data.  We're looking for people that have strong communication skills to explain what statistics say and mean in a clear way to a range of audiences.  Our statisticians should have people skills to build relationships with policy colleagues and users of our data to improve our statistics . 

Our statistical positions are for you, if you're bright, motivated and creative and want to use your talents to help make a difference to the lives of the people of Scotland.  In return, we'll offer you an incredible opportunity to work across the Scottish Government informing important decisions with high profile analysis right from the start.  You will be supported with learning and development opportunities based on what you need for your role.  You will be encouraged to work right across the range of policy areas affecting people's lives, moving posts every three years or so to gain a broad experience and knowledge of statistical work in different areas and develop the necessary skills for promotion.  We pride ourselves in offer good promotion opportunities to more senior statistician roles.

Further information can be found at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/statistics-and-research-recruitment/

Important information

To note, B1 Assistant Statistician vacancies are also currently being advertised.  If you wish to be considered for both positions then you must submit a separate application for each.

All dates are subject to change.  Should candidates be unavailable for any of the selection stages then please notify us of the reasons why as soon as possible.

Given the timeframes involved there is no guarantee we will be able to accommodate your request however we will do what we can to help wherever possible.

If you think that the Assistant Statistician roles may be for you, please join us at our information session in conjunction with the DataLab on Mon 6th November at 12:30 – 14:00 to find out more about the roles and the recruitment process.  Please sign up at this link Do you want to be a Scottish Government Statistician? (thedatalab.com)

Responsibilities

• Collect and acquire data that provides evidence for Government policy and decision making.• Use your technical abilities to clean, process and manage the data for analysis.• Make sense of what the data is saying using data management and statistical techniques to provide insights.• Clearly communicate the messages from the data to a range of audiences via statistical publications.• Work with users to ensure statistics and data produced met their requirements.• Use innovative approaches to improve processes in the production of statistics.• Work in a collective and collaborative environment across individual teams and the Statistics Group as a whole.

Competencies: SfS framework (band B)Improving Performance Self-Awareness People Management

GSG framework (HStO level)Acquiring data and understanding customer needsData AnalysisPresenting and disseminating data effectively

Essential Criteria & Qualifications

Eligibility criteriaYour application will be reviewed to check that you have evidenced that you are eligible to apply. This can be as: 1. a current Government Statistics Group (GSG) member; or, 2. having a minimum of a 2:2 undergraduate degree or a Master’s Degree or PhD with some formal training on statistics or data; or,.3. having a minimum of a 2:2 undergraduate degree or a Master’s Degree or PhD with at least one year’s experience in a statistics or data related field.

If you have not yet completed your degree or relevant post graduate qualification, any job offer will be conditional on this. Please note: If you fail to demonstrate how you meet the minimum qualifications as stated above, your application will be automatically sifted out.

In the application form, please only include university qualifications and/or qualifications relevant to the role.

Essential Criteria: 1. Ability to work in a team to provide a service to others.2. Ability to effectively use planning and organisational skills to manage workloads.3. Choosing appropriate data management, statistical and analytical coding techniques to produce analysis to answer a problem.4. Ability to draw conclusions based on data and select appropriate ways to clearly communicate to others.

Location: Glasgow and Edinburgh

Interview and Assessment:To be confirmed

Minimum time in post:You will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of three years unless successful at gaining promotion to a higher Band or Grade.

In the event that further posts are required, a reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for up to 12 months.

Additional information:For further information, please download and review the “Person Specification” which you will find below.

Advert Candidate Pack Stats B2 – Ass Stat B2 Candidate pack 18.10PDF Band B Pers spec - Person_Specification_Band_B Updated Oct23 (V3)

The post is a full-time role, but staff with different working patterns are invited to apply, and we will assess proposed working patterns against the business requirements for this post.

For information regarding this post please contact Wendy.Kirk@gov.scot. If you are already a badged HStO statistician and you are interested in working in Scottish Government, please also contact Wendy.

Further information

We ask that all applicants provide dates when they are unable to attend for assessments between 10th Jan – 7th Feb

How to applyTo apply for this post, you will need to provide the information requested below via the online application process.

You must fully complete and submit an online application via the website before the closing date using evidence based examples to demonstrate your knowledge/skills (300 words). Remember, your answers should be clear, concise and reflect what actions you undertook. You may want to use the STAR(R) approach to respond to each criterion.

When you apply for a role on the Work for Scotland system, you will be asked to upload a CV. Although analytical vacancies do not use the CV, other Scottish Government vacancies sometimes do. We don’t expect applicants to upload a fully up to date CV for this vacancy, however you must upload something to get to the main part of the application.

If you choose to upload a blank word document or such like, this is acceptable for the analytical vacancy. However, if you apply for other Scottish Government roles, you should update this to an up to date CV if required.

For this analytical vacancy, if you choose to upload a CV, we suggest that you do not refer to it in the application answers as sifters will not have access to it. For fairness, only the answers given to the Essential Criteria questions will be assessed.

Important Information Regarding Interviews: In recognition of ongoing measures and guidance in response to Covid-19, a decision has been taken that all interviews will be conducted in a virtual/remote setting.

All applicants must ensure that they have a suitable space to complete the virtual interview via MS Teams and ensure that Wi-Fi/Broadband capacity will be sufficient to carry both audio and video feeds to undertake the interview.

Scottish Government's ambition is to be a world leading, diverse employer where people can be themselves at work. We want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot

As part of any recruitment process, Scottish Government and associated public bodies collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants and applicants for public appointments.

Personal information you provide in the recruitment process will be made available to Scottish Government and our additional data processors.