Placements and internships are difficult to come by for many researchers.  Our Full Switch™- Research Consultancy Programme offers an innovative solution for researchers to gain work experience as research consultants with the full support, training, coaching and feedback of the Code-Switch Team. The Code-Switch Consultants (CSC) consultancy method combines formal project management and consultancy training with MBA-style project-based experience, focusing on collaborative learning by doing. Researchers do not need previous consultancy or business experience.

Working on a Code-Switch consultancy project is a great opportunity to learn how to apply research expertise to a real-world context, collaborate and co-create solutions with business clients in interdisciplinary project teams, and experience the positive direct impact of research for businesses. During the programme you:

• Immerse yourself in a real project that follows a formal project management framework
• Gain industry skills and real-world experience of working as research consultants with business clients
• Are part of an interdisciplinary project team working towards a common goal

Researchers come from a wide range of SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy) and STEM disciplines from Social Anthropology to English Literature to Physics. Whatever your field of research, you can bring unique skills and benefits to businesses and this programme will show you how – it is not about your research background but your research know-how!

This programme will support your career and professional development whether you want to pursue an academic career, work outside academia or are not sure about your options.

Pursuing an academic career: Knowledge exchange and impact are important trending topics in academia.  Research funders expect you demonstrate the impact of your research (25% of REF). Impact is usually a result of effective knowledge exchange with an external partner. When working as part of a multidisciplinary project team in one of our projects, you engage with a client for six months to deliver research and recommendations that bring immediate benefit to their company. Researchers who have taken part in the programme have reported how this experience helped them to stand out from the crowd and secure Research Staff roles. Furthermore, the project management skills you develop are directly applicable to your thesis or research project.

Working in industry: Code-Switch’s Research Consultancy Programme combines learning with practical experience and enables researchers to demonstrate a broad range of competencies: consultancy; project management; teamwork; business acumen; stakeholder engagement; risk management; customer relations; leadership; reporting; influencing; problem-solving; and adaptability to name a few. Researchers also develop commercial awareness and a considerable understanding of a specific area of industry. This programme has supported researchers secure a range of industry roles.

Not sure what you want to do: Participating in one of our projects will expose you to new ways of working, frameworks and tools. Researchers who have completed the programme have reported increased confidence in their skills and ability to combine research and industry skills in different contexts. By the end of the programme, you will have become more agile and versatile and will have a much better understanding of the options available to you.

On successful completion of the programme and delivery of the consultancy project, researchers are awarded a digital badge providing portable and verifiable information about the skills, experience and achievement.

The CSC Method provides researchers with a robust framework for successfully delivering a research consultancy project and gain in-demand industry skills. Code-Switch provides high-quality training in consultancy and project management and coaches the teams as they directly apply the learning to a live project with real business clients.

How it works

The CSC Method is broken down into four distinct stages, see below.

Initiation Stage – 10 weeks

The objective of the initiation stage is to analyse the brief and co-create the project with the client.

Associates collaborate with Code-Switch professionals, consult the client and apply project management tools and techniques to analyse, define and plan the project. The key output of this stage is a Project Initiation Document (PID) which, once approved by the client, acts as the contract between the project team and the client for the delivery of the project.

Delivery Stage – 8 weeks

During the delivery stage, associates manage project delivery, risks and issues using our project management software and provide formal updates to Code-Switch and the clients using modern dashboard reporting.

Reporting Stage – 4 weeks

The objective of the reporting stage is to effectively communicate the research findings and recommendations to the client. It requires the project teams to finalise their research reports and translate them into a business report and a business presentation (code-switch!).

Evaluation Stage – 2 weeks

Associates learn how to effectively evaluate and close a project. Project teams use recognised techniques to confirm client acceptance of the products, assess and document project performance from different perspectives and ensure all stakeholders benefit from the lessons learned.

Key Dates

The programme is very flexible and it’s 100% online. There are only a few set dates and times for events that researchers are expected to attend. The remaining engagements and activities can be arranged by the project teams within specified windows of time based on their availability. This is done to ensure that researchers can fit the programme around their other commitments.  The key dates for the 2024 summer programme are:

01/07/24 Introduction to the programme  17:00-19:00

04/07/24 Managing your Consultancy Project 1   17:00-19:00

08/07/24 Managing your Consultancy Project 2  17:00-19:00

10/07/24 Managing your Consultancy Project 3 16:00-19:00

26/07/24 Coaching 2 – Project Management Consultant  16:00-19:00

03/09/24 Delivery stage expectations session – Research Report development and project updates  16:00-17:30

20/11/24 Planning and Producing Effective Business Reports Coaching 17:00-19:00

05/12/24 Evaluating a project  17:00-19:00

Time Commitment

It is a 6-month programme with an average commitment of 7 hours/week. This estimate is averaged over the course of the programme. During this time, researchers work in interdisciplinary project teams of 5-6 members.

Attendance

Associates should attend all workshops, coaching sessions, meetings and presentations. If you have important commitments which cannot be moved on any of the key dates, you should contact Code-Switch in advance to explore the options.

Upon registration, researchers submit a summary of their research expertise and select all projects they would like to work on during the programme. You can find the project summaries here.

Code-Switch uses this information to match researchers to projects, creating interdisciplinary teams with diverse skills and ensuring the mix of skills is appropriate for the requirements of the individual business challenges.

Working in interdisciplinary teams, our Associate Research Consultants have successfully helped businesses solve a wide range of challenges, including:

• Marketing strategies
• Evaluation of services
• Development and validation of new services and products
• Attracting investment
• Making investment decisions
• Creating capability
• Business change
• Entering new geographical markets
• Expanding from B2C to B2B and from B2B to B2C
• Launching, positioning and communicating new services and products
• Measuring impact of products
• Achieving strategic goals

See the summary of projects available for our 2024 programme here.

Our associates come from a wide range of SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy) and STEM disciplines, including:

SHAPE

• International Relations • Law • English Literature • Contemporary Art • Social Anthropology • Management Science • Social Philosophy in Health • Psychology • Education • Social Statistics • Health Research • Marketing • Political Sciences • Social Policy • Graphic Design • Philosophy • Criminology • Data Analytics • Development Policy and Management • Architecture • Human Geography • Decision Sciences • Music • Applied Drama • Linguistics

STEM

The cost of the programme is £1200.

PhD researchers may be able to receive funding from Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs), Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs) or universities’ internal pots of funding. We advise researchers to contact their DTPs, Placement Officers, Researcher Development Teams or Impact Accelerator Account Officers to enquire about potential sources of funding for the programme.

Postdoctoral researchers have also secured funding from their institutions and have undertaken the course as part of the Researcher Development Concordat. The Concordat requires universities and funders to support postdocs’ engagement in a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.