1. SRA North Job Shadowing Scheme
Job Shadow Pilot Proposal

2. SRA North provides networking events, seminars and other opportunities for professional development for people engaged in social research, in any capacity and across a range of organisations, in the north of England.
To support this mission we are considering launching a job shadowing scheme for social researchers in the North.
Today I’m going to outline a proposal for what a job shadowing scheme might entail.
We aim to pilot this proposal between Arp 2019 – Sep assuming you guys and the wider SR community think it sounds like a good idea!
Idea has come from the SRA North committee, when thinking about the kind of things that might be useful for the SR community up here.
In particular I we were thinking about offers other than formal training.

3. Aims of an SRA North shadowing scheme
To help new and early career researchers get an understanding of different jobs done by social researchers across different sectors.
To help members of the social research community build relationships and networks with researchers in other organisations.
To enable researchers to get exposure to the work being done by social researchers in different sectors and job roles.
Three main aims of a job shadowing scheme:
-understand the different types of research job available
-build relationships and networks
-get exposure to other sectors and job roles

4. What would ‘job shadowing’ entail?
Job shadowing is a development opportunity where individuals can get to learn about a particular job role or organisation by walking through the work day or certain work tasks of a worker in that role or organisation. It is important to note that the shadower does not do work for the individual or organisation being shadowed, and does not undertake formal training. Shadowing is short term, usually half- to one- day, but could be longer by mutual agreement. As well as observing tasks it could also include conversations or Q&A sessions with other staff in the organisation.
Need to be clear, this is very short term job shadowing
It isn’t work placements, internships, or work experience
The organisation/person offering the placement would have to ensure they follow any internal procedures for brining guests into the building, and be mindful of any security or confidentiality issues in the meetings being attended.

5. Who would be involved? And what would the expected benefits be?
Shadowers
Shadowees
Shadowers could be students, or people working in research (either early career or more experienced)
They would get:
The opportunity to find out about roles that other social researchers are doing.
The opportunity to find out more about other organisations or working arrangements.
We would expect more experienced shadowers to have slightly different aims for shadowing and would work with the shadowee to make placements suitable
Shadowees are likely to include people with a research background or in research job roles in Government, charity, think tanks, research agencies and Universities; it may also include independent researchers
They would get:
The opportunity to promote your organisation to new and early career researchers.
The opportunity to build relationships with other social researchers.
We are keen to highlight that we think there could be benefits to shadowing for people across different stages in their research career – although it might take a bit more thought and tailoring
We do acknowledge that it might be harder for some organisations to offer a placement, and that shadowees need to be aware that quite a lot of day to day work can be quite dull! But there are other ways you can organise or do placements to ensure benefit for both parties
Q. Are people in organisations likely to be willing to offer placements?
We know for some organisations it might be hard to offer ‘job shadowing’ in the traditional sense (e.g. independent researchers), but we encourage people to think if there are other things they could offer through this scheme – for instance a coffee and a chat to talk about what they do, or how they go into it, or what it is actually like?

6. Plans for how SRA North will administer the scheme
There would be one (or maybe two?) formal job shadowing round per year (assuming the pilot is successful)
There would be a central coordinator(s) who would administer the scheme
The coordinator(s) will establish a list of organisations and individuals interested in taking part in the shadowing team
Central coordinator(s) will run a speed networking event or other method of facilitating interaction between shadowers and shadowees
People wishing to take part after the networking event will be asked to indicate their preference(s) for shadowing and the central coordination team will review the ‘matches’ and put suitable pairings in contact
Shadowers and shadowees can then get in touch to arrange the placement

7. Proposed process
SRA coordinators get list of organisations/people able to offer shadowing
Arrange networking event/publicise database of opportunities
Interested shadowees submit preferences
Coorinators match shadowers to opportunities and put two parties in contact
Shadowers and shadowees arrange shadowing
Shadowing takes place
Shadowers and shadowees feedback to central coordinators
Review pilot and decide whether to roll out

8. Timeline and next steps
Finalise proposal to be piloted (August 2018)
Outline plans for pilot at early careers event; get feedback and start building list of people interested in taking part (October)
Identify organisations/individuals willing to be shadowed for pilot event (January/February)
Prepare initial guidance materials for pilot (Dec/Jan)
Facilitate matching and contact for shadowers/shadowees taking part in the pilot (Mar/Arp – matches announced Apr/May)
Ask pilot participants to complete shadowing by September
Obtain feedback from shadowers and shadowees (Sep/Oct)
Feedback and review (Oct)

9. Thank you for your interest in the Job Shadowing Pilot Please also feel free to come discuss any ideas or offers with me during the networking afterwards Or by /phone after the event