Government Social Research
Home Office senior research officer Andrew Zurawan recently completed the Pathways Programme - a National School of Government leadership programme set up for minority ethnic staff assessed as having the potential to reach the Senior Civil Service in the short to medium term.
He says: 'I became aware of Pathways when my Grade 6 mentioned it in passing. It was publicised as being for Grades 6/7 and so I concluded it wasn’t for me, but a conversation with the administrators suggested I could take part if I met the entry criteria. My Grade 6 persuaded me that it was a good opportunity that might not come again.
'I’d never done an assessment centre before or sat a psychometric test. It was quite a challenge for a working class kid from a council flat in Kilburn, who hadn’t expected to get this far. The programme involved work on team building, leadership, working styles, and change management, supported by executive coaching and mentoring from sSenior civil servants. We also developed special projects of interest to the Civil Service - the development of a knowledge network, which has since been taken up by Cabinet Office, and some work on the subject of upward mentoring which I am also hoping we can take further.'
Andrew has been at the Home Office since 2001, prior to which he taught Computing and Quantitative Research Methods at the University of Surrey whilst undertaking his PhD on the subject of youth violence. During his studies he also undertook short-term consultancies for the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate, whetting his appetite for more Home Office work. For the past few years he has been based in the Home Office Communities Group, and in September 2005 completed a six-month secondment to the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit at the Home Office.
He says: 'I left academia for the Home Office largely because I didn’t feel I was getting the necessary breadth of experience - I found that after the first couple of years I was doing the same things over and over again, albeit with minor tweaks. I wanted to focus at a high level, and felt I needed to be at the hub in order to do that. My Home Office work is always interesting, if a little pressured - I’m never bored. '
He concludes: 'I want to be a career civil servant if possible. I’d like to remain a specialist, and I have benefited immensely from participation in the Pathways leadership programme and look forward to developing my skills further over the years. It’s not easy for specialists, but I think Professional Skills for Government will help. After all, if I don’t try I will never know.'