Louis Cantello
Location: Manchester
Qualifications: MA Social Research (University of Leeds), BA History and Sociology (University of Manchester)
I joined SQW in September 2024 after completing my Master’s degree in Social Research at the University of Leeds. I previously worked for a housing association and decided to apply this experience, along with my undergraduate studies of Sociology and History, towards a career in evaluation and research. I was immediately drawn to SQW’s track record of high-quality research across a broad range of projects within the public, private and charitable sectors.
Since joining SQW, I’ve had the opportunity to work across many of the policy areas I had initially been interested in, alongside some unexpected areas of interest. I’ve been able to apply my experience with the housing sector to work with Homes England, while also being introduced to new topic areas such as life sciences and the youth sector. SQW have facilitated my long-term interest in qualitative research methods, and have also encouraged the development of my skills in data visualization.
Research Consultants are able to apply their unique skillsets to project work, and are supported with training for methods, techniques and software such as MaxQDA (qualitative analysis software) and QGIS (mapping software). This has been facilitated by a rich support network, both through my mentor and line manager as well as support from colleagues across all levels and offices at SQW. There have also been lots of events to get to know people beyond work - before joining SQW, I didn’t know so many experts in pub-quizzes, board games or Ceilidh!
I’ve had many opportunities to work out of the office through fieldwork or visits to our Edinburgh and London offices. A particular highlight has been opportunities to go back to Leeds through visits to West Yorkshire Combined Authority and to the University of Leeds with the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC). Overall, I’ve learned a lot during my time with SQW, and a massive part of that is through the environment of curiosity and genuine interest in high-quality evaluation and research that SQW encourages.
