My career story: Louise White
Job title and department or organisation
Louise is a Higher Statistical Officer in Welsh Government.
Grade
Louise works at Higher Executive Officer (HEO) grade.
Profession and entry route
Louise is a member of the Government Statistical Group (GSG).
She entered the Civil Service at Higher Executive Officer (HEO) grade through mainstream profession recruitment.
Louise’s career path
I left school after my O levels and worked at the University of Southampton as an Audiology Technician. I was a trainee working towards my BTEC in Physiological Measurements and Medical Physics. These qualifications enabled me to get into university to study at age 19. I studied Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex and worked in the local hospital as an Audiology Technician. I went on to complete my PhD in the same department and then completed a Post Doctorate research fellowship. After this I became a lecturer in Psychology at Kingston University in London where I worked for several years before taking a career break to have children.
During my career break my husband was offered a job in Wales, so we moved to Cardiff. I started working at the University of Cardiff as a Research Assistant. This was a downward step for me and at the time there was little job security as the roles were temporary. I decided to look for a more permanent role, which is when I heard about the Civil Service. I applied for a Government Statistical Service (GSS) recruitment round and was given a job as a Higher Statistical Officer (HEO grade) at the Welsh Government, which I started in September 2017.
My first role involved working in the policy team as a Statistician, looking at foundation stage education in Wales, which is nursery aged children through to Year 2. In 2018 I moved laterally to work on the Welsh Government response to Brexit. My role involved helping set up the trade survey for Wales, which was very different from my first role in the Civil Service.
I had to learn a lot in my role as it involved economics and commissioning surveys, which is something I had little experience in. In the Welsh Government you are encouraged to rotate every 2 or 3 years, so in 2020 I moved to the School Statistics Team which is where I work now. I wanted to move to a new area of work to broaden my skills and experience. As a team we publish annual statistics publications on school education figures in Wales. Working in Welsh Government has allowed me to experience a lot of different areas of statistics which has been great. I have also found that being in the GSS helps me to identify skills gaps and work with my line manager to fill them.
The flowchart shows Louise’s career progression from leaving school to her current role as Higher Statistical Officer. It shows the step-by-step journey Louise has taken to achieve her current grade and experience. Enlarge the flowchart.
We have several annual publications which we work on in my team. For example, I work on school examinations and school exclusions publications which come out each year. It is a statutory obligation for Local Authorities to provide us with the data. We then process and publish it.
During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we used management information from schools to compile a weekly attendance report on school attendance levels during the pandemic. This has continued because of the low attendance rates at schools post pandemic. This involves a fast turnaround of data as we would get the weekly figures and have a short timeframe to process and publish them.
I am working towards promotion to Senior Statistical Officer (SEO Grade) and I would eventually like to progress to Grade 7. I want to get more skilled with using R and SQL and improve my technical knowledge first.
I am proud of the work my team and I did for the weekly attendance publication during the pandemic. It was a team effort and very fast paced. It has been great to work on such an important publication which has been published in the press.
My greatest challenge is keeping up to date with technological changes and learning new technical skills. Technology is always changing and there is always something new to learn. When I first started my role, I had little experience of using Access, but I learned on the job. Now my team are starting to move away from Access to different software, so I need to learn how to use a different piece of software.
Louise’s advice
Be open to try new things. Take opportunities to work with different teams or on projects outside of your comfort zone to support your growth and development in your role. It is a great opportunity to learn new skills.
Also, if you are going for a promotion, do not be discouraged if you do not pass the recruitment round first time. Use the feedback to improve and when you’re ready you will get the role. Do not let your age be a barrier to trying new things or progressing your career.
This career story was published on Tuesday 1 August 2023.