Future and Senior Leaders Schemes knowledge exchange sessions

Interested in progressing your career? Then you won’t want to miss out on your chance to be part of the current intake of the Future Leaders Scheme (FLS) and Senior Leaders Scheme (SLS). Applications close at midday on Friday 12 March and we have spoken to some past participants who give their advice and tell us what the experience was like for them;

Josh Roebuck (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy), FLS

“My advice would be to really think about what you want to get out of the FLS before you get into the application process. This is something that will be tested throughout the process. It’s not just a shiny badge that looks good on a CV, and it’s worth speaking to colleagues who have been on the scheme to determine whether it’s right for you compared to other development opportunities.

The FLS has helped me think about and structure development in a different way. Originally, I thought about development in the way of hoping someone would give me a manual setting out the route to leadership roles. I’m thinking much more now about the types of things I want to develop and therefore the types of roles that will allow me to do that beyond the specific policy area, be that working in an organisation with a mix of practitioners and generalists, or a role with a delivery mindset etc.”

Amy Coleman (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport), FLS

“The really big thing that I got out of it was, having seen the full diversity in the Civil Service, to be a bit more confident to represent the needs of analysis within the organisation, and to really stand up for those a little bit more rather than allowing the policy process to take over.”

Ben Cropper (Cabinet Office), SLS

“The network gained from the SLS is really important. There are basically 20 colleagues who are all in a similar position and are all sharing ideas on what roles are about, who should go for what, and being really supportive in preparing for interviews.

It totally broadened my horizon and widened my perspective on what would be interesting jobs to do in government. I had roughly ten years in the Treasury before I went on the scheme which does tend to give you quite an insular mindset on what you can do. I would now be really keen to look at jobs outside the Whitehall bubble, purely because I went on the SLS.”

If you weren’t able to attend the Knowledge Exchange Sessions hosted by the Analysis Function in February but would like to find out more from analysts currently on the schemes, please contact the Analysis Function team analysis.function@ons.gov.uk and we can share a video recording of the session with you.