Having completed an undergraduate degree in mathematics, Sarah Crossley joined the Phastar apprenticeship scheme in January 2024, where they are currently pursuing a master’s degree while working as a statistician. This apprenticeship scheme is distinct from the Phastar graduate program, which is designed for individuals who have recently graduated from an MSc or PhD. In contrast, this statistics apprenticeship allows Sarah to study for her MSc while working at Phastar.
Below, Sarah describes her experiences as part of the scheme.
Hi. I am Sarah and how did I get to this point? Well to be brief, when I applied for my undergraduate degree the only thing I knew was that I was vaguely good at maths, so I chose to study it further. I knew I wasn’t too fond of the idea of teaching; it was never something I felt I could do. As such, the problem in my mind was that this cut out 50% of job opportunities as a maths graduate; because with a maths degree you can only teach or do finance, right? So, with this in mind I thought I would do a sandwich year in my degree – a year in industry – meaning in my third year I would be out in industry earning money and seeing the other side of life post university. This would give me a chance to see what was out there for a maths graduate that might be more suited to what I saw my skill set to be.
I’m sure anyone reading this blog can remember their first day in a new job, which can be an extremely exciting, yet scary event. Going from a university setting where turning up to lectures wearing anything is fine as long as you don’t doze off, to being a professional person with a game face on for 9am can be quite a shock to the system. One thing I’m sure many of you have felt is not being good enough or perhaps qualified enough to do the job you’re working on. This is where I can say with certainty that we have different experiences because I definitely have not got the qualifications for my job. You see, I am a Masters Apprenticeship student, studying for my Masters with the University of Strathclyde whilst working as a Statistician on the opposite side of the country in London with Phastar.
My year in industry started in 2020 which, as I am sure we can all remember, was an interesting time, but between the sourdough starters and Joe Wicks exercise classes I started working at the pharmaceutical company, Roche, in their Business Operations Team. I learnt so much this year and it helped develop so many skills I didn’t even know I had. One of the main impacts of my time there came from shadowing a Statistician. I had always enjoyed statistics at school and university, and watching how that was used towards improving medical care and treatments was inspiring. Once that year was over, I knew I had found an area that I really wanted to work in that I hadn’t known even existed when I applied to university. I much preferred working rather than studying at university. I found my strengths lay with hands on practical work experience. The only issue was that to work in this area required a master’s qualification, another year of studying, another year of student debt and not working, which whilst I was very much ready to do wasn’t the most appealing. However, I realized that all these problems could be solved by doing an apprenticeship, which was a much more appealing path to follow.
Degree apprenticeships have become more popular in the UK, which meant I was aware of the concept but not necessarily the details. In fact, I had heard about the Data Science Degree Apprenticeship, and I began to wonder if there would be an equivalent for the master’s qualification that I would need to become a Statistician. From my research I discovered that there was just that qualification and it was at that point that I knew it was the route I wanted to take to become the best Statistician I could.
I often get asked; What does this look like in practice? So here is an idea of how my day to day and week by week work looks like:
• Monday to Thursday: I am working at Phastar on the Statistician Graduate scheme. This means I am performing study work and contributing to Phastar’s studies alongside all the other Graduate Statistician at this stage of their career.
In my role, I work closely with study teams to contribute to the running of clinical trial dry runs and assist with the delivery of client projects, ensuring everything runs smoothly and meets our clients’ needs. I also have the chance to collaborate on internal projects across different teams at Phastar, like data science and marketing, where I can contribute my skills and learn from others in different areas.
Ongoing training is important to me, so I stay up to date with required programs, including SAS programming, which has been valuable for expanding my technical skills. Attending regular company meetings keeps me aligned with our organizational goals, while other tasks that come up during the week add variety and help me stay adaptable.
• Friday: When Friday hits and everyone is finishing off that week’s tasks, I am studying. The apprenticeship is with the University of Strathclyde, who have produced a curriculum for students in a similar working situation to myself, ensuring that we can work through it alongside our work. At the time of writing this, I had already submitted and received marks on my second assignment. So far, I have studied the modules “The Foundations of Statistics” and “Data Analysis in R”. The content of the course is similar to what would be expected of any Medical Statistics masters level course, but something I particularly like about the assignments is that they are framed to test a professional statistician’s brains, making me present my answers as I would have to do when working in industry, testing both my ability to do the work but also to think with a business focus. It hasn’t always been easy balancing the two together and there have been times where I have had to be flexible to accommodate study work or studying. I am so thankful to be part of a team that has been really understanding about the situation and been able to accommodate me when I may need an extra study day.
I cannot pretend that the apprenticeship has always been easy, but it has been a great learning experience throughout and I have enjoyed both work and studying immensely. I am so thankful to have discovered that I am someone who is built to learn through working, and this apprenticeship fits like a glove!
If anyone is thinking about doing an apprenticeship, I would really recommend going for it, it has been such a great opportunity, and I have been so lucky to be in such a welcoming company that really supports the continual learning of its staff.
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