For the sixth year in a row, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) sent Robin Sherbourne, the head of its ODI Fellowship Scheme, to the Barcelona GSE to give an informational recruitment talk to Master's students. 120 Master's students attended the talk, which was organized by Barcelona GSE Career Services.
ODI is the UK's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Its prestigious Fellowship Scheme gives postgraduate economists and statisticians the chance to work in developing country public sectors as local civil servants on two-year contracts.
The Scheme has two objectives: to provide developing country governments with high-calibre junior economists and statisticians where there are gaps in local capacity; and to give postgraduate economists and statisticians practical work experience in a developing country.
Fellows may be assigned to any of 40 countries across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific, with many going on to successful careers in government, multilateral institutions, academia and the private sector. The Scheme is open to candidates of all nationalities provided they have a Master’s degree or PhD in Economics, Statistics or a related discipline.
During the past five years of collaboration between ODI and the Barcelona GSE, 17 alumni have been hired as ODI Fellows and posted to Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania, among other locations.
"Employers who are after (skills) like how to survive and become effective in a very difficult environment; how to work with a team of completely different people from a very different culture, possibly a different language to the one (they have) grown up with, if you are looking for those sort of people, the graduate school here provides very good candidates."
Robin Sherbourne, Head of ODI Fellowship Scheme
