NJEEDS is the State of New Jersey’s centralized longitudinal data system and was developed in 2012 through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Its core mission is to create a single place where de-identified state education, postsecondary education, employment, and workforce longitudinal data are safely made available to education and training stakeholders and the public for analysis to improve governance efforts, policymaking, and the performance of education and workforce initiatives. Four New Jersey agencies contribute data and resources to the data system. They include:

• New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE),
• New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA),
• New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL), and
• New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE).

Since 2017, NJEEDS has been hosted at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. While the system has been operational, it has not yet been open to public researchers. In order to better understand how the data system can serve the community and to meet the demand for using the data, the data owners have authorized an internship and training program to higher education students to conduct research for the benefit of state agencies and educational and workforce programs. The grant program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences’ Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant (PR/Award #: R372A200035).

Job responsibilities include:

• Processing, cleaning, and verifying the integrity of data used for analysis;
• Utilize predictive analytics, data mining, and/or inferential statistics using data science methods;
• Produce timely and high-quality written, tabular, and visual materials for research reports and presentations under the supervision of senior research staff;
• Assist in the execution of research activities, studies, and projects, including conducting and writing literature reviews, and undertaking data collection and analysis in the area of postsecondary education policy and workforce development;
• Prepare print documents, web page content, and/or other products and graphics using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and/or other software packages.

This position is open to students at the graduate level attending any higher education institution that is authorized for operation in the State of New Jersey. The ideal candidate should have the following skills and qualifications:

• Very strong writing and analytical skills;
• Possess mature, articulate, and tactful communication skills;
• Interest in workforce development or postsecondary education policy;
• High personal motivation, self-management, and detail orientation, and the ability to take responsibility in meeting deadlines and making progress without frequent supervision;
• Motivation to engage in and manage a wide array of intellectual and logistical work, ranging from preparing literature reviews to analyzing data and drafting research papers; and
• Experience in a computer programming and/or a statistical programming (SPSS, Stata, SAS, R, SQL, Python, etc.) language.

In addition, applicants must be available to work between May 29, 2023 and August 25, 2023 and attend the Applied Data Analytics course as a part of their responsibilities. The training is provided for free to those who are hired as an intern (valued at up to $4,000). Students will be required to present the results of their internship during a stakeholder briefing in September 2023. Papers will be posted on the NJEEDS website.

Students are asked to submit a cover letter, résumé, and graduate school transcript.

The hourly pay is commensurate with experience. These positions are anticipated to be around 30 hours per week. The successful candidate should be available to meet at the Heldrich Center located at 30 Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Partial telework may be available depending on the applicant’s location within the state.

All offers at Rutgers University are subject to pre-employment conditions that must be met. For this position, you will need to successfully clear a background check investigation and provide proof that you are fully vaccinated and have received a booster (where eligible) against COVID-19 prior to beginning employment unless the University has granted you a medical or religious exemption.

Submit your application online.

Q1. If I am on a Visa can I apply for the internship program? I know that I may not earn money, but can I get the experience and the credit for the work.

If applicants are non-Rutgers F-1 students, contact the international office at your current institution. They can confirm eligibility and requirements to participate in the internship for pay. In general, Rutgers cannot sponsor most other visa statuses from another University to work for pay at Rutgers in this internship program. For students in other visa categories not eligible to work, we will work with your native institution to support the internship to meet academic requirements or professional development.

Q2. How many rounds of interviews will there be?

The application review will be followed by a screening call with an NJEEDS staff member, then one round of interviews with staff at state agency partners. If there are any changes due to feedback from our partner agencies, we will send an email to all candidates and post the information on the NJEEDS website.

Q3. Is there a preferred program for coding/data analysis i.e. R, Stata, SPSS, etc.?

We do not have any preference on coding or data analysis experience. We want candidates to have general interest in quantitative data. The selected interns will be trained in R and Structured Query Language.

Q4. The internship is listed as 20 hours per week. Will interns be allowed to work full-time/more hours over the summer?

The internship positions have been budgeted for 20 hours per week. If you are an active full- time student in the Rutgers system, you cannot work over 19.5 hours per week over the summer if you are taking classes.

Q5. How does the hiring procedure work?

Candidates are required to apply through the application link on the NJEEDS website. If for any reason you are unable to attach all of the supplemental information you would like, you can send those materials to njeeds@ejb.rutgers.edu. Next, there will be an application screening done by the NJEEDS staff and the partner agency data stewards. Candidates are asked to include in their cover letter their preference for which agency they would like to work with. Following the application screening, candidates will interview with agency staff. The application is currently posted on the Rutgers job posting website as well as on our NJEEDS website. Once an offer is made, the additional steps such as the vaccine requirements and background checks are started. We hope offers will be made by April 15, then the necessary paperwork will need to be completed in order to get the new interns into the system by June 1.

Q6. Upon completion of the internship, is there an opportunity for an extension or a full-time position?

There are always opportunities. The Heldrich Center will be posting Research Assistant positions that will work with NJEEDS data soon; the timing does not align for this internship, but there may be similar postings in the future. The Research Assistants will be participating in the Applied Data Analytics class and gaining experience and networking within state agencies. There are no guarantees, but interns may be able to get an extension and get involved in short term projects.