Consultant Development Programme

The Consultant Development Programme supports talented, passionate early-career professionals in developing and refining their skills and provides experiences across different areas of international development.

Global opportunities  

Assistant Consultants joining the Programme may be based in a number of our offices, and each recruitment round will advertise the different location options. Applicants can come from diverse academic and professional backgrounds; graduates, previous interns, or early-career professionals with work experience, all looking for further learning opportunities.  

Hands-on experience  

Staff in the Consultant Development Programme provide sector specialist and management inputs to projects across our organisation and across different points of the project cycle. Some will work in thematic areas they are interested or experienced in, or perhaps an area which is relatively new to them. Being part of the Consultant Development Programme will also allow Assistant Consultants to broaden their experience in:  

• general consultancy and development skills,
• primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative research and analysis skills,
• depth and breadth of knowledge and experience both across the policy cycle and the various policy areas in which OPM works,
• effective writing, presentation, and communication skills, and
• project and people management and leadership skills.

Staff in the Consultant Development Programme may also take on project implementation roles, providing managerial inputs, or contributing to business development by writing bids or attending client meetings.  

After two years, Assistant Consultants will transition to managing their own projects, interacting directly with clients more frequently, and taking on greater autonomy and responsibility for providing advice to policymakers. They may also take on greater people management responsibility, either for our interns or other junior consultants.

Learning and development

It is critical that anyone joining our Consultant Development Programme is innately curious, has an ability to quickly adapt and learn, and is dedicated to finding solutions.

Due to the many possibilities of working across the different sectoral and geographical teams, learning curves are often steep and follow an on-the-job training approach. In addition, the organisation offers structured opportunities to skills development, for example: in-house online consultancy training, thematic seminars, and participation in technical communities of practice and working groups.

Join the Programme!

Find out more about what it is like to work at Oxford Policy Management.

If you would like to join the Consultant Development Programme, look out for the latest opportunities on our recruitment page.