Before starting teacher training this September I have been working as an intern at Mime. I wanted to do something which was related to education and when I saw Mime’s work I thought it looked really interesting and got in touch.
I have had really varied work here and learnt a lot about using data in education. I had no idea there was so much publicly available data, or how to make it useful for answering questions about schools or cohorts of pupils.
I found helping on a report about London’s student’s post-16 routes really interesting. I like Mime’s emphasis on finding things which are not just interesting academically but are also actionable and can actually make a difference in education.
I have processed data to make sure it is in a good format before it is visualised. I learnt a lot about working in a way that will be easy to repeat or modify later. I have also checked data in various dashboards against its source, to make sure the analysis Mime sends to its clients is accurate. The Excel training I’ve been given has been really useful, including making a practice version of the type of Excel dashboard Mime provide for their clients. I have enjoyed the mixture of problem-solving and design needed in a lot of my tasks here, and I’ve become much quicker in Excel and used Tableau for the first time.
Mime often makes customised analysis products for their clients, and I have spent a bit of time testing some of these to make sure there are no bugs. I’ve also worked on a few different types of infographics, including one for Carney’s Community (a brilliant organisation who give long term support to vulnerable young people), and commentary on new data releases.
Mime is a lovely place to work and I’ve really enjoyed my time here. One highlight was the Mime Summer Social, where we attended a fun Cuban cooking class with Migrateful, then went on a boozy canal boat ride.
On A-Level and GCSE results days, Mime gathers a lot of data from schools and turns it around on the same day. This requires lots of teamwork, checking and chocolate rolls! It was great working together with everyone and helping each other.
Written by Lucy Thomas (Mime Intern, 2019)
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