Where do you work?
I work for the Examination team of the British Council in Pakistan, as the Country Exams Manager.
How big is the exams team in your country?
We have over 120 staff in our Exams team in Pakistan spread across three locations.
What type of distribution exams do you deliver most in your country?
In terms of volumes it is school exams. In fact, we deliver more school exams here than anywhere else in the world outside of UK. We also deliver a healthy portfolio of IELTS and Professional exams.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Two things really… the challenge of working in a fast pace, constantly evolving and complex work environment but more than that the pleasure of working with such dedicated professional and likeable team members.
What has been the biggest impact on your work since the Covid-19 crisis?
Clearly the temporary suspension of core exams delivery. But also working from home has impacted a big way on the team.
How have you dealt with this and responded to the challenge?
We have tried to ensure we remain engaged with all our key stakeholders, building relationships, developing alternative offers. From the working virtually perspective focusing very much on more frequent online meetings and doing tasks that we previously never had the time to do.
What positives have come out of this?
We have come to appreciate even more how important face to face working and relationships at work are; we’ve become more creative in developing other offers that perhaps we need to maintain or even develop further once we get ‘back to normal’.