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Jordan Barry - Parexel
In September 2021, I began the final year of my undergraduate degree in Mathematics at the University of Sussex. Like many students in that time, I began thinking about what my future might look like after graduation. I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in medical statistics, but I wasn’t sure whether continuing full-time education was the right step for me. That’s when I found the Apprentice Biostatistician role advertised by Parexel.
The Apprenticeship is a 3-year training partnership between Parexel as my employer and the University of Strathclyde as my university.
I spend 80% of my time working and 20% of my time studying for a Medical Statistics MSc. This balance allows me to develop skills for life while continuing my education – the best of both worlds.
The teaching at Strathclyde is very applied and varied, allowing students to learn while doing, and covers modules from ‘Quantitative Risk Analysis’ (my personal favourite!) and ‘Statistical Modelling and Analysis’ to ‘Data Analytics in R,’ where students build skills in R – a programming language that is rapidly becoming more widely-adopted by clinical research organisations (CROs). Further, the Medical Statistics degree course at Strathclyde is well-structured, with lots of opportunity for individual feedback along the way.
Working at Parexel alongside completing a degree at Strathclyde comes with challenges that build skills for life, such as managing time between university assignments and work project deadlines. However, the two also complement one another. For example, there is an opportunity to learn the differences between R and SAS (another statistical package more widely used by CROs) programming, and to develop professional skills for industry that will carry me through my career, such as how to work within company processes and in a global team.
I would recommend the Medical Statistics Degree Apprenticeship to anyone who isn’t sure if full-time education is for them after their undergraduate degree, and for those who wish to build professional and industry skills for life early on in their career.
Blog written by Jordan Barry, 2nd year MSc Medical Statistics Degree Apprentice
