Progress through FDA Learn

Katherine Hutchinson speaks to member Tutu Ogle about her burgeoning career and how her union is supporting its growth.

Tutu Ogle is a solicitor, working within Northern Ireland’s Departmental Solicitor’s Office in the Department of Finance, where she provides legal advice to government departments. Having joined the FDA in 2022, she is currently a member of the FDA’s Northern Ireland Section Committee as one of the representatives for the Department of Finance.

Her role on the committee involves attending regular Whitley (formal consultation) meetings with legal employers within the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS), where she “discusses how they’re managing business, including reviewing candidate applications for temporary roles and tries to be a voice of reason to ensure that it’s suitable across board and our members are not disadvantaged.

“I also attend the Diversity and Equality Whitley meeting for the whole of the civil service. That is very useful because they are going through massive policy change across Northern Ireland on disability policy, working from home policy and also dealing with women’s wellbeing, which in itself has now become a separate group, which I also represent.

“I represent the FDA on the women’s wellbeing and health forum where they are trying to develop policies and processes. At the moment they’re running a sort of focus group to listen to what women are saying, what they want and how they would like to be engaged and supported in work.”

Ogle also works with the NICS HR team to volunteer within a recently established programme to support people at work who are experiencing domestic violence:

“I have volunteered that whenever they have space, I would like to be able to support people who are going through domestic violence because I have both personal and professional experience in this area and I understand what people might be going through.”

As an FDA member, Ogle says she has benefited from taking advantage of FDA Learn’s career development programme: “It has been very positive. It has really helped me to understand how to write applications better. It is absolutely valuable, what I have personally gained from it and what I have seen others gain from it.

“A colleague of mine was supported and was able to get a Grade 6 role, and another received interview training and was successful in attaining a Grade 7 post. So, FDA Learn is extremely valuable here in Northern Ireland.”

She notes that due to the differences between the application processes for UK and NI jobs, without the training she received from FDA Learn – particularly in Behaviours and interviews – she would have found it impossible to apply for UK Civil Service-based roles in NI.

Ogle adds that she also gained networking opportunities through FDA Learn: “There was a very senior civil servant in Scotland who offered to review my application for me. If I was not on the FDA Learn training, I would never have come into contact with her and I would not have had the benefit of her wisdom.”

She also recently presented at the Women into Leadership Belfast, one of a series of conferences hosted by Total Events in partnership with the FDA, that are designed to support women in the civil service to progress in their careers.

Ogle says that speaking at the event, which she was invited to do at short notice due to the original speaker becoming unavailable, gave her the opportunity to reflect on her own career and the challenges she has faced, and that the experience helped her to “appreciate that you have leaders within different grades and levels.”

She adds: “I attended because I was able to do so through the FDA, and from there I got the opportunity to share my own experiences, to talk about leadership in a time of uncertainty and to reflect on myself and realise that I have developed to a position where I can offer more to others than I actually think I can.

“We’re so used to ourselves that we sometimes minimise what we have, and what we can contribute in different scenarios. Until somebody puts us on the spot in a positive way, you’ll not be able to reflect on these things. So it was a great opportunity and I enjoyed it.”

Ogle has also recently signed up to be mentored through the FDA’s Public Sector Development and Mentoring Scheme:

“I have had mentors before, but this was different, because he listened to my experiences and was able to let me know that I actually am in a position where I can move on and move forward and he thinks that if I’m ready, if I’m willing, I can actually go for a promotion. So for an initial meeting, it was absolutely amazing.”