Thomas Horton

What are you doing now?

I'm in my second year of the Civil Service Fast Stream and currently working as an Assistant Private Secretary to the Permanent Private Secretary at the Ministry of Justice. My portfolio includes sentencing, probation, youth justice, parole, domestic violence and victim support. I am a conduit between policy areas, junior ministers and the Permanent Private Secretary. In addition, I work closely with Ministers and special advisers, and genuine experts in their particular field. I organise the Permanent Secretary's calendar and every day I brief the Permanent Secretary about decisions being made by junior ministers in my policy areas across the Ministry.

What did you enjoy most about your history degree?

I chose Chester following an open day. What particularly me impressed was the sense of community I felt. I enjoyed the opportunity to study the breadth (or sweep) of history offered by Chester which is fairly unique.

How did your degree prepare you for your current role?

I am very clear about how history has helped me. Every day, I receive lots of information from lots of different sources. It is my job to examine the credibility of those sources, synthesise the information and draw out key arguments and then present that information for different purposes and for different audiences. These skills are exactly those that I developed from studying history. A further skill that I developed, and use regularly, is that of being able to form, articulate and justify a clear position whilst at the same time being open to, and recognising, the validity of other arguments.