Nope, lol. The pay is pegged at the specialist scheme renumeration, only 4.5k at least according to earlier discussions.

In my opinion, internship won’t be that helpful, most specialist scheme put more weight into academic outcomes than internships, especially the ES’s KPI is geared on economic research. Would be helpful if it you have an economist or public service internship maybe?

My friend added that the interview was very technical and rigorous, so if you love explaining technical econometrics, then its good. The will ask you to build models and then debate with you over it. Lol. Anyway, it’s a super competitive scheme because the intake is not big, and they do very specialised work - it’s a very studious environment. If you’re interested in macro, then MAS is the one for macroeconomist.

They do have career events for econs department so do chat with them if you have the opportunities. Most important thing is get that FCH. Good luck!