Professional Development Programs by Tutoring in Government and Politics

By way of introducing myself here's a brief overview of my relationship with politics

I came to Loughborough in 2014 to conduct my doctoral research into anarchism and elections. I needed some extra money while |I was studying and started to tutor A Level Government and Politics students in my spare time, starting with two local students at a local school. Gradually I started to increase the amount of tutoring I did and then moved to online tutoring, enabling me to tutor across the country from home. But why Government and Politics and what experience do I have?

From 2012 - 2014  I studied at Ruskin College in Oxford for an MA in trade union studies. I had been a trade union representative at work and this gave me extra knowledge about how trade unions had lost membership and how they might grow stronger. For my dissertation I compared the PCS union (for government workers in the UK) with the Chicago Teachers Union. I interviewed teachers in Chicago and civil servants in the UK to compare them.

In 2000 I joined the Home Office and started in the role of asylum caseworker. I interviewed asylum seekers and decided if they qualified for refugee status. I later won an internal scholarship for people who showed potential to rise through the grades and was given a different role each year for three years to provide me with experience. I worked on drafting legislation for ministers, government targets for reducing reoffending, the Home Office Corporate Change Programme and gained great insight into programme and project management. I drafted briefing for the Prime Minister for PMQ's and helped the Permanent Secretary prepare for their monthly meetings with the Director for Correctional Services

In 1997 -1998 I completed an MA in Democracy at Leeds University. This was at a time of great change in the UK with devolution and the Human Rights Act as the backdrop. I also wrote essays on the Freedom of Information Act and the end of apartheid in South Africa.

From 1994 - 1997 I studied at London Guildhall University, now London Metropolitan. I took  modules in UK politics, focusing on the Thatcher years, post 1945 politics, US politics, world politics since 1945 and various modules on Russian and Soviet history. My final dissertation was on ancient Athenian democracy.

In 1992 I wasn't really sure that I would do A Levels or go to university. I didn't know if I could do it, let alone a doctorate. I was always interested in politics and that year I started up all night watching the general election results come in. When my GCSE results came in I knew I could do it. I signed up for Government and Politics and it's led me on quite a crazy journey!