Niki brings her passion for data to the Economy and Skills team
Warwickshire County Council’s Economy and Skills team has welcomed a new member with the appointment of Niki Takhar.
A graduate in Education, Culture and Childhood from the University of Sheffield, Niki has found herself drawn to two things since finishing her degree that have shaped her career to date; data and young people.
Working on two streams of work, both fields are playing a significant role in Niki’s working life. Part of the Employability and Skills team, she is coordinating the Active Inclusion Project. This works with Rethink Mental Health to support people with mental health conditions gain employment and also with the Youth Justice Service to improve their educational outcomes.
The second part of her role, as she is shared across the Economy and Skills team, sees her liaising with schools, colleges and training providers and linking them with businesses to address the skills shortages some enterprises might be faced with.
Her love of organised data means that she can find a training provider at the click of a mouse, once she has established what the needs are.
As Niki readily admits, young people and well-arranged data are not natural bedfellows. So what brought Niki to this point in her career?
Upon graduating, Niki took up a role at the University of Sheffield, just as the administration was looking to replace the system by which students communicated with their faculties. Niki liaised between students and departments to feed in students’ wish lists and make sure that the student systems such as systems for uploading assessments and timetable were fit for purpose.
That ticked the box both for working with young people and for sorting data to inform a decision. Niki was hooked.
Her next post saw her return to the Midlands to take up a post at the University of Warwick as an HR Administrator before moving to Warwick Business School as an Events Co-ordinator, signposting Undergraduates to career resources and helping those taking Masters Degrees with any career changes they might have been considering.
Again, it was Niki’s love of analysing detail to get to the best outcome that helped her make such an impression in the job and to solve problems almost effortlessly.
“I must admit, I do really like a spreadsheet," Niki said. "I even use them in my personal life where I draw up a list of restaurants and cross reference various criteria; type of food, location, rating of food etc so if any of my friends asks if there is a restaurant near where we are, I have a load of detail at my fingertips. I even have a spreadsheet of happy hours in bars; times, areas, what the deals are. As a fond lover of travelling, this could get out of hand, I know!”
Niki will be limiting her collection of data to Warwickshire and the surrounding local area and playing a key role in helping her clients.
“We're delighted to welcome Niki to the team, she has a great combination of talents and is already having a positive impact!” said her line manager Helen Hunt.