Skills development and careers support

Key skills

During your study at Warwick, you will be able to gain some key skills which you might be able to cite in your job or further study applications and/or interviews. More importantly, we hope that these varied range of skills will help you to reflect on your journey: what your studies mean to you and how you have grown personally, academically and professionally during your time at Warwick.

In the Module Skills mapping section of our Careers webpage, we have provided you with a range of skills that you can potentially acquire from the different modules over your degree course.

We have summarised below the cognitive and professional skills we believe you will acquire from your Warwick Masters degree. Reflecting on what you have learned and planning further personal development will help you to:

• Achieve your academic and career goals;
• Recognise what professional attributes you have developed;
• Be prepared for searching questions from employers on applications and at interviews;
• Become more independent learners and critical thinkers;
• Be more self-directed, self-reliant and proactive.

MSc Economics and MSc Economics and International Financial Economics

• Advanced verbal, graphical and mathematical analysis of economic models; understanding of concepts of equilibria including equilibria in strategic contexts; the ceteris paribus method and counterfactual analysis;
• Promote the critical evaluation of received ideas through exposure to recent research developments;
• Evaluate models of a multi-agent decision making, where pay-offs depend on the actions of others, particularly asymmetric information games, repeated games and evolutionary models;
• Finding whether a solution to a problem exits and developing new applications of existing models;
• Balancing simplification (for tractability) against literalness (for relevance);
• Understanding private versus social costs and benefits and their distribution; understanding the rationale for government and international policy;
• Analysing what institutions exist and why, and how incentives work in them;
• Understanding and applying simultaneity and endogeneity;
• Analysing concepts of an optimum and efficiency;
• Analysing concepts of expectations and surprises; probability and its applications.

Transferable Skills

• Dealing with complex issues both systematically and creatively
• Making sound judgements in the absence of complete data
• Communicating conclusions clearly to specialists and non-specialists ;
• Demonstrating self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and autonomy in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level;
• Continuing to advance knowledge and understanding, and to develop new skills to a high level.
• Evaluating own achievement and that of others;
• Critical engagement in the development of professional/disciplinary boundaries and norms;
• Written and oral communication skills;
• Team-working skills;
• Information processing skills, including locating, evaluating, and extracting specialist information; organising, surveying, summarising and interpreting material;
• Specialist numeracy skills: including ability to use and evaluate complex economic models and diagrams, and a wide range of statistical techniques;
• Information technology skills: including word processing and spreadsheet packages; specialist econometric, statistical, and other software; internet applications.

MSc Behavioural and Economics Science

Skills Support

Student Opportunity: Skills

The Student Opportunity: SkillsLink opens in a new window team offers employability skills and personal development opportunities based on the 12 Warwick Core skills. These include:

• The Warwick Award, which recognises students' skills development both within and alongside their course
• Moodle courses for each of the Warwick Core Skills
• Personal Development Programmes
• Intercultural communication and teamwork training

IT Skills

The ITS Training Service provides in-house training in Microsoft applications and academic software including:

• Stata
• SPSS
• Mathtype
• Mathematica
• Matlab
• Qualtrics

These courses are free of charge while you are studying here, so take advantage of the opportunity to develop your IT skills. Dates for specific courses can be found on the Training ServiceLink opens in a new window website.

Please note that if you fail to attend a course or provide adequate notice of cancellation, on two occasions, you will have any existing bookings to other courses cancelled and the right to book on further courses withdrawn.

Communication Skills

You will have many opportunities to develop your communication skills throughout your degree course.

Oral communication skills will be developed as you participate in classes and group work; you will also give presentations to your tutors and peers.

Written communication skills will be developed through essays, problem sets, tests, exam scripts and your research dissertation.

If English is not your first language, you may wish to take one of the free in-sessional English Language classesLink opens in a new window organised by Warwick Foundation StudiesLink opens in a new window. This will help your spoken English, written work, reading, and understanding during lectures and classes. It can also help improve your job prospects as employers will value language skills.

The Intercultural Training ProgrammeLink opens in a new window is also available to help you better understand, communicate, and build effective relationships with those from different cultural backgrounds.

Research Skills

During your MSc degree you will have the opportunity to develop your research skills and complete independent research work. You will learn to initiate your own exploration of economic questions, which is a key skill for career paths in research, analysis and working as a professional economist, and have the opportunity to be innovative and creative.

Quantitative Methods: Econometrics

In the Econometrics module you will produce high quality empirical econometrics, develop the critical insight to appraise econometric results obtained by others, and come to a balanced view concerning the weight of the empirical evidence presented. Developing your knowledge of econometrics is an important foundation for the dissertation or research project later in the year. Those completing the 45 CAT module have the opportunity to complete a group econometrics project on a topic of their choosing. This will provide experience of working in a team and help strengthen you communication skills.

Dissertation

MSc Economics and MSc Economics and International Financial Economics students complete a dissertation over four months in the summer. We offer weekly lectures in the Spring Term to explain the dissertation process and develop your research skills. Past dissertations are reviewed, explaining why they received high marks and where there might be weaknesses. We continue to build skills in econometrics packages for economists and provide guidance on economic data sets and how they can be used. You will also receive library dissertation training sessions and can book helpdesk appointments with tutors to discuss technical and software-related issues throughout the summer term and vacation.

The main aim of the dissertation is to encourage independent study and to provide a foundation for future original research. In terms of learning, the dissertation should provide students with a number of research skills, including the ability to define a feasible project allowing for time and resource constraints, develop an adequate methodology, make optimal use of library resources, access databases, understand their uses and limitations and extract relevant data, and work without the need for continuous supervision.

Research Project

MSc BES students will complete a research project in the summer months. The project will provide you with key research skills including the ability to formulate a research question or hypothesis and frame this question in the light of literature. You will design and carry out an investigation, extract relevant data and interpret your findings.

On Track

On TrackLink opens in a new window is the Postgraduate Hub’s programme of workshops, designed to help you maintain your work-life balance and provide practical information and support for your academic development and research. The workshops focus on academic skills, self-development and wellbeing - perfect if you're working on your dissertations, though all postgraduates are welcome to attend.

Careers support within the Department of Economics

Our aim is to support your career planning by offering you a range of opportunities to develop self-awareness, acquire new skills and help you have confidence in achieving your vision of career success.

To help you think about your future career, and plan the steps you will need to take over the coming year, we have arranged dedicated careers workshops for MSc Economics students. They cover some of the popular career options and the skills required for these, how to make effective job applications, and other aspects of career choice and development. There will also be sessions on the PhD application process and working on a visa for overseas students.

The Department Academic Careers Coordinator Dr Atisha Ghosh leads a team within the Department looking at careers, employability skills and a range of unique opportunities for our students to support them with acquiring skills relevant for economists and with their career planning. Her role involves:

• Providing students with updated information about exciting opportunities in different sectors for students to explore during and after their degree in economics.
• To support students in developing their employability skills. This involves providing a clear link between the different modules offered by the Department and the relevant employability skills students can acquire through taking these modules.
• To work with Student Opportunity to help support students in transitioning into the labour market or further educational opportunities.
• To work with the Director of Student Engagement and Progression and Department's Marketing and Communications Manager to ensure the scheme delivers relevant employability skills.
• To work with student societies to foster a joined-up approach to employability support.
• To analyse Graduate Destinations data in order to provide current students with information and support regarding their career options.

Available Resources

On the Department's Careers & SkillsLink opens in a new window online portal you will be able to find a range of useful resources tailored to the needs of Economics students. The website has a host of resources for you to engage in:

• It provides you with information on a range of exciting job roles in various sectors, which are not only in banking and finance.
• There is a section which maps skillsLink opens in a new window that you will acquire in different modules to employability skills. This will enable you to consolidate and communicate your profile to prospective employers.
• You will be able to access important tips from past students who have secured roles after graduation and via Spring and insight weeks and also those who have opted to go on to further studies. This is in addition to information about a host of services provided by the various student societies in supporting your career goals.
• Information and recordings of career webinars where we have hosted alumni from a broad range of careers.

• Access the University's central careers resources and events via Student OpportunityLink opens in a new window, which supports students with developing the skills that key graduate recruiters look for and provides advice and guidance on career options.
• Browse the Skills Zone because whilst you are at Warwick where you have the opportunity to develop your personal and professional skills, join societies, become a volunteer and find part-time work.
  

• Find out about the Warwick EnterpriseLink opens in a new window team, who can help you develop entrepreneurial skills and try out new business ideas and social enterprise.

Student Opportunity

From the time you arrive at Warwick, Student OpportunityLink opens in a new window can help you think about yourself and your future. We enable you to develop a global perspective, become culturally aware, and have confidence in achieving your vision of career success. We do this by supporting you to engage with a rich and varied range of experiences and opportunities to help you to achieve your full potential.

The Student Opportunity Careers Team can enable you to devise and implement plans which will help you get where you want to be in terms of work and careers once your studies here are over. Support is available to you regardless of which year you are in (and indeed after you graduate), whether your ideas are common or unusual and wherever you are in your career thinking, from being extremely focused to having no ideas at all. Support includes:

• Stephanie Redding is the Economics Senior Careers Consultant. You can make a 30-minute appointment to talk through your ideas, or attend one of the workshops organised specifically for Economics students.
• The Student Opportunity – Careers website contains up-to-date careers information and resources designed specifically for Warwick students, and the popular Careers blog is at careersblog.warwick.ac.uk
• A huge range of opportunities and events to meet organisations and employees, from large careers fairs to alumni meetings to employer-led skills events.
• Support with finding internships and other work experience and access to work experience bursaries.
• Skills development opportunities including the Warwick Award.
• Support with the practical process of making applications, including CV reviews, interview support and practice psychometric tests

Details and booking for events and appointments run by Student Opportunity are at myAdvantage. 

Online resources for job hunting can be found in the Economics Careers and Skills website.

Events and job opportunities are posted on MyAdvantageLink opens in a new window and the MS Teams Careers page.

Ready to find out more?

Visit the Help and Advice section of the website for details of services or email careers@warwick.ac.uk.

The Department's Careers Consultant for Economics runs 30 minute ‘careers guidance’ appointments throughout the year and these can be booked via the ‘View Available Appointments’ section on myAdvantage.

References

When you apply for jobs you will usually need at least one academic referee who has some general familiarity with your work and progress over a period of time. Your Personal Tutor is one person who will normally provide this. You can also ask other members of academic staff (i.e. lecturers and professors) to act as referees as well as, or instead of, your Personal Tutor. Graduate Teaching Assistants and tutors will refer you to a member of academic staff.

Before citing anyone as a referee you should seek their advice and permission. This is both a matter of courtesy and also to give your referee the permission to divulge information about you to third-parties seeking a reference. Please note that if your Personal Tutor or other nominated referee receives a reference request from, say, a potential employer, the nominated referee may only report if they have previously received your explicit permission to produce a reference for that employer.

In order that references can be as accurate and supportive as possible, please supply your referees with copies of your curriculum vitae (CV), whether you've had any investigations of academic integrity in the past, and let them know why you are applying. If you believe that you have some quality or experience that is especially relevant to a particular application, please make a point of telling your referees.

Internships

Internships exist in a wide variety of industries and settings. An internship may be paid, unpaid, or partially paid (in the form of a stipend). An internship can be used to determine if you have an interest in a particular career, create a network of contacts, and some may find permanent, paid employment with the organisations for which they worked.

It is important to note that those on Student Visas are only entitled to work part time (up to 20 hours per week) until the course end date and may not accept full-time internships during the summer vacation. Guidance on working during your studiesLink opens in a new window can be provided by Student Immigration and Compliance.

In order for students to differentiate and distinguish themselves further, it can be advantageous to enhance skills over and above those directly associated with the degree syllabus. With this in mind, the Department has introduced the Warwick Internship Scheme for Economists (WISE), which aims to provide opportunities for our undergraduate and postgraduate students to further enhance their employability skills.

These opportunities will aim to help students gain valuable skills for employment like: data handling and analysis, communication skills, report writing, event organisation, project management and IT skills. The interns employed through the scheme will work with either academic members of staff or as part of the professional services teams to support research, teaching, student experience and Department management activities. You will receive an email from the Department inviting you to apply to the scheme in October. Further information about WISE can be found on WISE webpageLink opens in a new window.