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| What is your education to date? |
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Subsequent to sitting my Leaving Cert, I attended University College Dublin and completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics.
After a number of years - while working in banking - I studied by night for a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Studies.
In the last few years, I completed a full-time Master of Arts in European Studies at the Dublin European Institute, UCD.
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| Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job? |
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Ongoing training is an important and ongoing feature within the performance management and development system of the Civil Service.
The Training Unit in the Department offers a very wide spectrum of courses on everything from MS Word, to time management, to presentation skills, to stress management to policy analysis.
I have already undertaken a number of courses in the Department this year. I have also just started studying for a Higher Diploma in Public Management in the Institute of Public Administration.
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| What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job? |
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Overall, my university education has been quite a valuable background resource for this job.
I studied Irish and European politics so I had a reasonably clear concept of the function of the Government, the Oireachtas and the Civil Service, from a theoretical point of view at least, if not quite in an operational sense of the word
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| What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path? |
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I knew by the time I started studying for the Leaving Cert, that I did not want to work in an area related to the Sciences so accordingly, I did not take up any of the science subjects.
I focused on languages, business and history as I had a good idea that I would eventually study and subsequently work in one of these areas, they being the subjects I was most interested in at school.
I proceeded to study history and politics at college. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do after, but enjoyed reading and learning about these subjects, and had a desire to work in a related area, if possible.
Personally, I have no regrets with my study choices. I enjoyed studying them, which I think is a vital factor, and I think they helped me entering the Civil Service, and continue to do so in terms of the fact that I have some understanding of the mechanics of the governmental and public system, even if it is often quite theoretical!
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