Year 13 Politics students recently visited the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office as part of their Outreach Team's mission to open its doors to students from underrepresented backgrounds.

In a hugely educational experience, students met with Senior Diplomats and Civil Servants and had the opportunity to learn about work in international relations, a field that they have been studying during their Politics course. The visit was inspiring, and encouraged students to find out more about opportunities and potential careers with the FCDO.      

Year 13 Student, Maryam A. writes:

"The visit opened my eyes to a future career where I could join my passion for languages, the Middle East and travelling with what I do for a living. We had the opportunity to speak with different levels of civil servants and learn about their work, including senior diplomats, Director General Vijay Rangarajan, and former Deputy High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Javed Patel.

We discovered the various exciting roles and experience of working at the FCDO as well as the purpose of the department and a little insight into how it operates. The team hosting us shared their personal stories of why and how they got into their roles, the pros and cons of working in the department, what they have done whist at the FCDO, as well as the future opportunities that may arise for them, inspiring me to follow in their footsteps with an achievable goal in mind. This was followed by an informative tour of the grand building.

There are many routes and fields people can come from and then work for the foreign office; I now know which route I would like to take and what I must do in order to fulfil my dream."