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Last week our MD, Lynsey, went to Sheffield once more as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Master’s in Statistics at the University of Sheffield. Having completed both her Masters and PhD at Sheffield, it was a great opportunity to visit her old department and meet some of their most recent postgraduate students.

The Advisory Committee meets once a year to advise the School of Maths and Statistics on the design and conduct of its MSc course, with particular reference to the current and developing needs of commercial organisations such as Select. During the meeting, the committee review student feedback forms on the various modules that make up the course, read through some of the most recent dissertations and have lunch with current students to hear first-hand what they thought of the course. “We had some really interesting and useful discussions with both the students and course leaders throughout the day” said Lynsey after the day. “Overall the feedback from the students was exceptionally positive, which is great to hear as I know from first-hand experience how useful the course is to employers”. One area that was particularly interesting to think about was the expanding field of data science and what sort of experience and qualifications future Data Scientists might need.

This year Lynsey was also invited to speak to the School of Maths Early Career group on her career to date and, more generally, on the role of a statistical consultant. The Early Career group is made up of both the School’s PhD students and their Research Associates and aims to invite speakers from a variety of different industries. During her talk, Lynsey gave some highlights of the sorts of interesting client projects that Select undertake and discussed what sort of skills are required to be a consultant (both statistical and non-statistical). The session was well received with lots of lively discussion and questions at the end.