Lara Klopper completed an internship with the Polar Regions Department and Overseas Territories Directorate of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from August 2015 to March 2016. During her internship, she supported the Marine Conservation Manager on various environmental policy initiatives and organized a ministerial event on environmental stewardship in British overseas territories. She also assisted with assessing funding bids, conducted research and analysis to support policy decisions, and helped develop learning and development programs. Her supervisors found she adapted well to new tasks, worked independently, and demonstrated strong communication, research, and project management skills.

1. UNCLASSIFIED
Unclassified
Graduate Intern – Placement Report: 2015/16
Name: Lara Klopper
Start and end Date: 25 August 2015 – 11 March 2016
PF Number: 740348
Department and Team: Polar Regions Department, Overseas Territories Directorate
Role and Main Duties:
 Support to the Marine Conservation Manager in key areas of cross-OTD
environmental policy:
 Blue Belt Implementation
 Darwin Plus Advisory Group
 Develop and organise Ministerial event to promote environmental stewardship
in the OTs.
 Lead on the tabling of UK commander papers on the Antarctic before parliament
 Provide support to the cross OTD Learning and Development programme
 Contributing to NSC review of BIOT resettlement options
Personal SMART Objectives:
 Assist BIOT Administrator to undertake a public consultation from the beginning of
August until the end of October. Analyse 800 responses to compile a submission for
the Minister so that a decision could be made on resettlement in BIOT. Commission
an appropriate consultancy to undertake some desk based analysis on the possibility
of establishing a hotel industry on the Outer Islands.
 Collaborate with the Marine Conservation Manager to complete a comprehensive
marine audit of all the OTs in order to identify key gaps in marine legislation so that
bespoke solutions can be developed and implemented to protect the unique marine
environments of each OT.

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 Assess the Darwin Plus bids allocated to the FCO ensuring our priorities are fully
represented in the awards process of a programme which we contribute significant
funds to (£500k). Ensure the bids are assessed according to relevant criteria and
marked accordingly. Represent the FCO on the Darwin Plus Advisory Group
(DPAG), ensuring that our position is adequately taken account of while also working
with other members to form consensus on which bids should receive funding.
 Organise an environmental reception in March for 120 people in order to showcase
the government supported environmental work taking place in the OTs. Coordinate
with Government Hospitality, Ministers’ offices, and Stewart McPherson (Natural
historian and geographer who has visited each OT and is producing a documentary
that will be broadcast on BBC4 in March) to ensure successful delivery of the
reception’s objectives. Produce draft Ministerial speech, briefing and running order
for the event.
 Work with the Deputy Director of OTD to set L&D objectives for the directorate and
seek to find and fill the gaps in learning. Collaborate with an directorate wide L&D
team to analyse the results of a directorate-wide survey on L&D. Assisted in creating
presentation for in-house L&D sessions.
Development plan:
Development Need Activity Proposed Target Date
Develop basic diplomatic/civil
service skills
Attend relevant diplomatic academy
courses (negotiating, international
policy skills, networking), Working with
parliament course, etc
Jan 2016
Work to improve chances during
next year’s faststream application
Utilise the resources available through
the internship programme, mentoring
with successful faststreamer’s on
process, use of FCO resources for
APS
Dec 2016
Further develop language skills Utilise FCO language centre to take
on a new language (Farsi), contribute
to language provision by offering
mentoring in Chinese
End of Tour
Overall Performance Summary
Since the start of her placement Lara has consistently shown enthusiasm for her work and a
willingness to learn in new areas across a diverse range of subjects. This flexibility and
adaptability has been a real asset to both Polar Regions and the wider Directorate. She was
more than happy to assist another team in the directorate for a month when they had need
for extra resources. She then showed her ability to learn quickly by fast becoming familiar
with a different territory and its specific range of issues. The feedback from the team
involved made clear that Lara’s active listening style was a key skill in enabling her to do this

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and that the speed and competence with which she got to grips with her new work meant
that she was then able to operate largely autonomously. She was also given the opportunity
to exercise management functions over another short term member of staff. As with other
new areas this was something Lara took to with ease and which she was able to do with
very little oversight. This ability to work on a range of issues, at short notice, and to a high
standard is one of Lara’s key strengths.
SPACE FOR RELEVANT FEEDBACK AT THE END OF TOUR
Lara’s enthusiasm is matched with a determination to complete the tasks she is assigned.
Several items she has worked on this year have either been mundane or frustrating. She
has dealt with both types with professionalism and maintained her positive outlook
throughout, working diligently to ensure she completes them to best of her ability. This was
particularly true when Lara spent almost a week preparing an Antarctic Treaty Consultative
Meeting Command paper to be laid before parliament. This was a technically demanding
piece of work that required not only patience, but also quick lateral thinking and use of
contacts on Lara’s part to find solutions for the many technical problems that she
encountered.
As mentioned in the first paragraph Lara is a very good active listener, however, she is also
possessed of a curiosity and desire to learn. This means that she asks intelligent questions
and retains information, which will serve her well wherever she moves on to. She has
engaged heavily with the available diplomatic academy resources, whether formal learning
or the regular talks which are organised by the faculty. This has allowed her to both
strengthen important diplomatic skills and gain more exposure to the wider work of the FCO
and the global issues on which it works. She is also conscious of her own development
needs and was diligent in using self assessment tools to identify skill gaps and then seek out
relevant learning opportunities to fill them
In her time here Lara has been both an asset, and an important member of, the Polar
Regions Department. She quickly fitted in with the team and wider department, and her
strong interpersonal skills and communication ability mean that she is able to easily work
with a wide range of colleagues. She also has excellent drafting skills, and once she adapted
to the style and conventions of the FCO, was more than capable of producing drafts for
important internal or external stakeholders. In summary, in her short time in the office Lara
has already shown many of the skills required to be successful in the FCO in the longer
term. I would encourage her to apply for the faststream or other entry routes if she so
wishes, but am sure that she will be successful in whatever she turns her hand too in the
future.
Competence based feedback, using the 6 most relevant Civil Service Competency
Framework competences (at FCO Band B), as agreed with the Line Manager:
1. Delivering at pace – Throughout her time with the FCO Lara has shown her ability to
take responsibility and deliver outcomes to short deadlines. This is probably best
evidence by her work delivering briefing for the annual Joint Ministerial Council. Lara
was asked to lead on the Polar Regions contribution to a Ministerial brief on the
economy. The original brief was completed to a short deadline, but then had to be

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re-written several times. Each of these re-writes was accompanied by a new steer
on formatting and content. Lara was able to react quickly to the changing needs of
her customers and complete the redrafting to a high standard. At the Syria
conference Lara further demonstrated her skills in this area, responding at ten
minutes notice to an urgent request from the Icelandic President to assist with the
delivery of his speech.
2. Managing a quality service - Feedback from her time working in another department
was very positive in this area, particularly on Lara’s ability to prioritise and proactively
give updates to management about her progress on a complex piece of work. This
was important as she was working on a contribution to a submission for the National
Security council on a key issue for the Territory concerned. This work required a
substantial amount of research, statistical analysis and drafting, and also involved the
line management of another member of staff. Lara was successfully able to juggle
these competing issues and prioritise her work to ensure successful delivery.
3. Collaborating and partnering – Lara has demonstrated her ability to identify
opportunities to share knowledge by assisting in the language centre. She took time
out of her day to work with staff undertaking mandarin classes, providing invaluable
conversational interaction for individuals. Lara has also demonstrated her ability to
build working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the Civil
Service to help get business done. This is particularly evident in her environmental
work both with the OTs and wider NGO engagement.
4. Seeing the Bigger Picture’– From the start of her placement Lara has displayed a
desire to understand the work of both her team and the wider FCO. She has done
this through a wide array of activities. These included engaging with the Deputy
Director of OTD on a Learning and Development programme for the entire
directorate. Lara also volunteered for two large conferences hosted by the FCO, the
Joint Ministerial Council and the Syria Conference. Lara got to know more about
senior decision making in the office by participating as an observer in board
meetings, and about the FCO’s crisis response structures by assisting with a Senior
Leadership Crisis management exercise. Throughout her time she took every
opportunity to attend interesting talks arranged by the Diplomatic Academy and other
Departments, which covered the full gamut of Foreign Policy issues.
5. Making effective decisions – Throughout her placement Lara has shown her ability to
use the information available to her to make effective decisions or recommendations.
For instance, when she was tasked with preparing an audit of Marine Protection
across all the Overseas Territories. This required her to assemble information from a
wide range of sources, while assessing it for reliability and biases. She then made
decisions about what was relevant and how to include and present sometimes
technically complex or confusing information back to non-experts. In this she was
successful and the audit documents have now been sent out across the Overseas
Territories as part of a consultation. Lara has shown a good awareness of how or
where she can find out information which she does not know. In the instance above
she sometimes had to deal with technical or unfamiliar environmental or fisheries
terms, but was able to do so comfortably by using the resources available in the

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department and her more experienced colleagues. Given more time in the office I
am sure she would have developed even more strongly in this area, given her ability
to take on new information and work independently.
6. Leading and communicating – Lara’s communication skills are one of her strengths,
she is very much a ‘people person’ and is very comfortable dealing with colleagues
or stakeholders and communicating her ideas to them. During her placement she
has been responsible for organising an Ministerial event to highlight the work being
done to protect the environment in the overseas territories. This has involved
working with a wide variety of stakeholders, some of which have been very difficult,
with different conceptions and strong opinions of how the event should be run and
organised. Lara has dealt with these differing expectations expertly, managing
stakeholder expectations and clearly communicating decisions and their reasoning to
them. She has also maintained her enthusiasm despite several setbacks in the
attendees for the event and has communicated this enthusiasm to the other
stakeholders. Lara also had to work closely with the event organisers, as it was held
outside the FCO, which has further tested her communication abilities as she had to
ensure that FCO objectives could be accommodated.
Evaluation of how training/development activities (both within the assigned team and
any other roles undertaken) has added value to the graduate’s performance, skills set
or experience of working at the FCO:
Lara has been an enthusiastic consumer of the various training and development
opportunities on offer in the FCO. This has included both core learning and the wider
developmental opportunities that were available. Lara’s attendance on a number of
diplomatic academy courses has helped her to build up her negotiating, interpersonal and
policy development skills. Her attendance on the Working with Parliament course was
valuable in showing the wider work of government and her work and that of her team
contributed to the wider government. These formal courses have helped build on her
understanding of the office and how it works which have enabled to her to quickly move
between different types and levels of work as needs have dictated.
Lara volunteered to assist with several important events for the FCO that fell outside of her
usual job role. This included the Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council, the visit of the
President of Kazakhstan and the Syria Conference. Lara said that she really enjoyed being
involved in such a complicated and logistically challenging operation, as well as being
involved with such a high profile international event. Assisting in these events not only gave
Lara and understanding of the wider work of the FCO, but the JMC and Syria conference
have given her an understanding of how multilateral negotiations work. The JMC also
showed how her work, whether in logistics or briefing, contributed to the success of a
important event in the FCO’s calendar.
Lara already has a range of skills that she would need to make a success of a permanent
career in the FCO. She displayed an ability to learn quickly and act on her own initiative,
without direction where necessary. Hopefully the training and development she has
undertaken have prepared her for a career in the FCO in future, if she so chooses. She did
undertake a number of development opportunities with the goal of attempting the fast stream

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process in the coming year. The experience she has gained and contacts she has made
should stand her in good stead in this endeavour
Line Manager’s name: Scott Davidson (until February 2016) Kylie Bamford (March 2016)
Graduate Intern’s comments (optional):
Graduate Intern’s confirmation (electronic signature) that they have seen the report
and discussed it with their Line Manager:
Lara Klopper
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Please return the completed form by email to Amanroop Rahal in Recruitment