NEW ROLE: RESEARCH ASSOCIATE – FUTURE SKILLS THINK TANK

 
THE ROLE

• Job Title: Research Associate – Future Skills Think Tank
• Role Type: 4 months fixed-term contract
• Application closing date: Monday 02 December (23.59 BST)
• Interviews: Friday 06 December
• Salary: £40,000 per annum 0.4 FTE (£5,333 pro-rated 4 months fixed-term contract)
• Hours: 2 days per week – 14 hours per week
• Location: Your main workplace will be The London School of Architecture, 4 Beechwood Rd, London E8 3DP. The London School of Architecture has a flexible working policy, with one core office day (Tuesday).
• Duration: Four month contract, with the possibility of a three-month extension – January to April 2025
• Reports to: Rachael Milliner, Research Lead and Coordinator

Click here to submit your application.

THE SCHOOL

The London School of Architecture (LSA) is an independent higher education provider registered through the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The first cohort of students were enrolled in 2015.

The LSA strives for a transformation in how architects and other built environment practitioners can learn to create more equitable and sustainable cities. The school was founded as a radical disrupter of conventional forms of architectural education aimed at widening access to the profession. Now ten years old, the LSA is undergoing an exciting period of growth by expanding its range of innovative academic programmes designed to respond to urgent social and environmental agendas. Our purpose is to devise programmes at all levels that support the re- making of the urban built environment in that context.

We currently offer after-school courses in city making for 13-18 year olds (Part 0), a two year postgraduate Masters (MArch) in Designing Architecture ARB/RIBA Part 2 and a post-professional programme of short courses for practitioners (Part 4).

The next project is to develop a series of new programmes, including at educational levels 4-6 (undergraduate degree equivalent) that specifically privilege green skills and multidisciplinary thinking and practice in construction, engineering and other built environment disciplines. Our Future Skills Task Force aims to gather rich and wide evidence to inform this strategic next step.

The LSA is run by a small, friendly and energetic team who are all committed to ensuring the success of its educational vision and mission. The school is based in Hackney, east London.

 
WHAT IS THE FUTURE SKILLS THINK TANK?

This project is a partnership led by the LSA in close collaboration with the London Borough of Hackney, The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation, UCEM and the Design Museum Future Observatory. We’re exploring what a radical change in foundational built environment skills training could look like, finding ways to create more equitable routes through industry for those historically excluded on the basis of class, gender and those from the global majority. Challenge current silo issues across construction trades and design.

We know that building 1.5 million homes in the next 5 years is a promise that has been made without a grasp of the skills issues within the sector. We should also be questioning if this is really the solution to the problem at hand. How can we deliver education that reimagines our systems, that truly engages with retrofit?

We are exploring this research at two scales. First an audit; a mapping of the current state of Built Environment Education across the UK. Where is best practice? What is siloed? What are the issues we need to avoid reproducing? Once this is mapped we can understand what a foundational programme intervention at the LSA could look like, using a framework and pedagogy that best suits the needs of our area, Hackney, within the national context.

Using six lenses of research we begin this exercise:

1. Pathways: We want to understand desirable and viable pathways for underserved and underrepresented young people and career changers in the built environment sector
2. Standards: We need to map and audit all existing academic and occupational standards across built environment disciplines from educational levels 3-7, ensure they are fit for purpose for a just transition, and produce evidence to catalyse their review by industry partners and regulators
3. Industrial strategy: We will adumbrate a progressive industrial strategy for construction and development in line with our vision and mission, and devise the means to understand industrial economic capacity in relation to sector-wide green skills shortages
4. Procurement: We will explore how to leverage social value, EDI and other procurement criteria to contribute to the sustaining and scaling of programmes we build
5. Literacy: We want to understand how democratising the language, knowledge and understanding of place can play an impactful role in efforts to engage new publics to the profession; identify cross-sector future skills; improve the effectiveness of learning programmes; and facilitate procuring bodies in their efforts to create more just, equitable, and inclusive processes
6. Policy: We aspire to influence policy in relation to social mobility and skills opportunities around the following political priorities: housing supply and regeneration; industrial strategy and skills-needs; achieving net-zero through just transition; healthier and sustainable communities

 
WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

The LSA is seeking a highly competent, creative and collaborative research associate to be a part of our team, supporting on admin and desk research. The work will be assisting the project delivery in its current stage, in the understanding that the LSA see’s this as a long term project it will be continuing to find funding for. You will support the mapping and audit of the current state of built environment education. An understanding of building standards, educational standards, key issues facing the industry and challenges in achieving a truly just transition will be key to this work.

We will be critical of labour practices and the large systemic forces that create poor working conditions and places. This project poses questions such as:

• What would it mean to teach bio-regional built environment education?
• What role does property ownership play in perpetuating key issues?
• How can we engage with neighbourhood retrofit in a just and scalable way?

We particularly encourage applicants from the Global Majority and those who have been traditionally excluded from industry on the basis of class and gender.

We encourage applicants with in-depth knowledge of the built environment sector who are not trained as architects.

Outline brief and responsibilities:

• Undertake desk-based research
• 1:1 research interviews with industry stakeholders
• Identify and onboard participants for gathering evidence
• Arrange evidence taking sessions and summarise findings
• Manage project data and information flows
• Liaise with key funders and stakeholders
• Co-produce a concluding project report for the LSA including key recommendations, best practice case studies and summaries of evidence
• Manage a budget

Essential skills & experience:

• Excellent collaborator and communicator: written, verbal and interpersonal
• Confident and rigorous in desk-based and in-person research
• Self-motivated under tight deadlines
• Experience in organising events and meetings, aligning diaries and producing minutes
• Working knowledge of the built environment industry and education sector
• Confident in project management and implementation against strict deadlines.
• Meticulous in managing project data and information flows
• Writing and producing reports

Desirable:

• Ability to work flexibly as part of a wider team
• Doctoral or Post-doctoral qualifications (or equivalent qualification/experience) in the built environment, social policy, or other cognate areas to the focuses of the project

 
READY TO APPLY?

If you are interested in being considered for this position, please apply to us no later than 23.59 (BST) on Monday 02 December.

Interviews will be held on Friday 6th of December.

Please provide the following in your application:

• An expression of interest with evidence of research capability
• A current CV
• An extract from a research document, e.g. peer review article, research degree submission/PhD, reports, book chapters etc.
• Contact details of two referees

Click here to submit your application.

You can also email with any questions you have about the project to rachael@the-lsa.org.

The LSA is committed to the promotion of equality and diversity principles and to ensuring that those principles are embedded in its culture and work. The LSA expects suppliers to demonstrate a similarly high level of commitment to promoting equality and diversity.

 
ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Our vision

Our vision is that people living in cities experience more fulfilled and more sustainable lives. Our school educates future leaders to design innovations that contribute to this change.

Our mission

• Network: To bring together outstanding students, practices, professionals, educators,
  and entrepreneurs to generate and champion essential new approaches to the design of
  the urban built environment.
• Institution: To establish the school as independent and financially sustainable, achieving the highest standards of governance and academic delivery with the spirit of agility, openness and responsiveness.
• Programme: To provide programme(s) that generate incremental and disruptive innovations in the design of architecture and cities, and which critically equip our graduates for the creative and commercial practices of tomorrow.
• Talent: To be the route of choice for gifted students to become future spatial leaders, recruiting talented candidates from across the whole of society by proactively addressing soft and hard barriers to the profession/industry.
• Impact: To influence the future of architecture and the city – and particularly London – by producing provocative design/research for global dissemination and by being nimble agents of change within the capital itself.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATEMENT

The London School of Architecture is committed to being an inclusive employer, building an inclusive workplace and recruiting a workforce as diverse as London’s. However you identify and whatever background you bring with you, we welcome you to apply for a role at The London School of Architecture.

If there are any adjustments that would help support you in your application, please do let us know when you apply. If you are disabled, Evenbreak is able to provide support with your application; for further information, please visit their website here.

Disabled, deaf and/or neurodivergent people and those from Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse backgrounds are underrepresented in our workforce, so we particularly encourage applications from people in these groups.

COMPANY INFO

Registered Charity No: 1159927
Website: the-lsa.org
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7206 2585
Location: The London School of Architecture, 4 Beechwood Road, London, E8 3DY