Jane Worrell, civil servant
Jane Worrell graduated with an MA in Modern and Medieval History in 1975. Working as a civil servant for over three decades, she was at the centre of creating inclusive workplaces and helping organisations get the best out of people.
Jane Worrell arrived at St Andrews in 1971, graduating with a degree in Modern and Mediaeval History in 1975. Over her time as an undergraduate, her fondest memories include the people she met, a month in Florence as part of her Italian Renaissance studies class, and the town itself, which she re-visits every year.
After graduation, Jane’s first job was at an insurance company in Manchester doing clerical work. After a short period in insurance, Jane returned to St Andrews, working for Nicholas Bogdan, a post doc based in the Mediaeval History Department. At the time, Bogdan was supervising a dig in Perth. “It was really exciting,” Jane recalled. “I got to use my Latin, and had to learn Scots,” she explained, describing a project involving the translation of medieval rent rolls. “Bogdan sent us to archaeology lectures and undergraduate Latin tutorials, though we were no longer students. I was getting paid 25 quid but it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever done.” Following her work with the archaeologists, Jane’s family relocated to Bristol, where she worked at the university library.
“All of this is to say I didn’t have a ‘career job’ for quite a while,” Jane explained. What she really wanted to do was work in a museum or an art gallery. “I had the opportunity to work in Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester as a volunteer, and if I had done that, if I could have afforded it instead of doing the insurance job, I could then have applied for the diploma in museums,” she explained. “It’s one of those catch-22’s you can’t work in a museum or art gallery unless you’ve got the diploma but you can’t get a diploma unless you’ve worked in a museum or art gallery.”
Jane applied for a job at the V&A in London. “The job advert next to it in the Observer was for Management Trainees in the Department of Employment,” she added and, taking a chance, she applied for it as well. As luck would have it, she got that job and embarked on a career in the Civil Service. “1,800 [people] applied; they took six, and four of us were History graduates. So that’s when History first gave me a leg up,” Jane said. “The explanation was that the people that had done History, they’d looked at different sources, they’d done some probability testing.”
In the Department of Employment, Jane was involved in management training. “[This] meant I got access to fantastic trainers and an opportunity to be substantially promoted to first line management within a couple of years, which normally would take people 4-5 years minimum.” Within the department, Jane’s positions included, Job Centre Manager, Training Manager, as well as Policy Work. “I did that for quite a long time, then I had babies and then I decided to move on.”
After Jane’s children were born, she began working part-time. “In the civil service, those opportunities [were available] long before they existed in the private sector,” she explained. “The drawback was if you only work part-time, you only get a part-time pension. So my retirement isn’t as well-funded as some of my peer group.” Despite this, Jane doesn’t regret her decision. “I was a single mother so I needed to support my kids and so I could give them options to have people for tea, go to after school things, and I wanted to do that, I’m glad I did.”
From the Department of Employment, Jane moved to the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), a career move she came to regret. ACAS employees are civil servants, but ACAS functions as an independent organisation, operating between employers and trade unions or employees. “I spent the next 25 years doing conflict resolution in one form or another, but I never got promoted again,” Jane explained. “I probably should’ve been, but there were other forces at work – it wasn’t the best place for a woman full time.” She spent her last years at ACAS working in diversity and inclusion which involved the creation of inclusive workplaces and training people to be mediators. There was a lot to be enjoyed in this period and she felt she made a difference both to individuals and to organisations.
“In 2017, I was 64, I thought I could stop, but I missed having important things to do,” Jane said. “As soon as I retired I didn’t have anything of substance to do. I could walk the dog and look after my grandchildren. I could be someone’s granny which is lovely but not entirely fulfilling. I wasn’t a hobby person.” As a result, Jane has chosen to serve on the board of two charities since retiring.
Looking back on her career, Jane said, “A lot of it was surprising. I learnt lots of things about myself,”. As a Job Centre manager she had great contact with the public. “I learnt things about people I had never thought of before.” In the civil service, Jane’s main role was to go into other organisations and try to help them to understand the most successful way to get the best out of their people. For her, the best way to do so was to “make them feel as if they have skin in the game. If it matters to them how the organisation does, then you’ll get a much more productive and positive workplace as well,” she explained. Here, she finds trust is key.
Though Jane never expected to find herself working in mediation and conflict resolution, she found that even here, she was continuing to draw on her training as a historian. “Some of the kind of questioning I had to do as mediator I could root in my skills of historical inquiry,” she explained. “You have to be able to root things out, see things from slightly different angles.”
“Similar to history you get eight witnesses to an event and they all have a different story,” Jane explained. “People often perceive history as being exclusively about dates. It’s much more about how people lived, how they felt at home. It’s so important in helping us understand what’s happening in the world right now, to contextualise things. It’s staggering how few people realise that.”
We ended our conversation with me asking Jane where she had any advice for students graduating with a History degree today. “Don’t get married, not at 22,” she said with a laugh. “But really, I feel you’ve got to put your heart and soul into stuff, whether that’s your degree, your social life, or your hobbies,” she continued. “Get behind stuff, get on with it. Life is short. I feel responsible because I’m still here to make the most of it.”
This profile was written by Mrunmayi Kamerkar, then a third-year student of International Relations and Modern History, who interviewed Jane Worrell in July 2026.