Tom Genillard

Tom Genillard is a Sociology & Criminology Subject Advisor at Cambridge OCR, an organisation that awards a range of educational and vocational qualifications including GCSE, A Levels and the new Cambridge Advanced Nationals (AAQ’s).

How did you get to where you are now?

I did my degree in social sciences at Leeds Beckett University, which I really enjoyed. I learnt a lot from it both in terms of independence for myself, but also the knowledge and understanding of the subject and where that could take me.

In saying that, I did leave university having really enjoyed my degree but not really knowing what I wanted to do with my career. So, I carried on in the hospitality industry, which I was already working in whilst at university, and ran some restaurants in Cambridge for a little while.

But I did have a bit of a reflective moment where I realised I was missing some of the things that I really enjoyed from my degree – especially the subject content. So, after a lot of thinking about what I could do maybe do next, I arranged to see one of my friends teach. I observed her in a classroom and thought it looked really fun and that I might be quite good at it. I did some unqualified teaching to begin with to get some experience, which I really enjoyed. And off the back of that, I applied to do my teacher training through a graduate teacher training programme, which I absolutely loved.

Teaching allowed me to pass on my enthusiasm for the subjects that I’d so enjoyed studying myself. Throughout my time as a teacher, I progressed up into middle management and leadership roles, which included pastoral care. As much as I enjoyed these aspects of the role, I was out of the classroom more than I really wanted to be. So, it was around this time that I began being interested in where other opportunities might take me whilst still staying true to aspects of the teaching that I loved.

I saw the job advertised for Cambridge OCR, which was to support sociology and criminology teachers, but also to develop new qualifications within those subjects, and it felt like the exciting new challenge that I couldn’t turn down. I’ve loved working here and really, really enjoy my job, but I know that I can always go back to teaching in the future if I want to.

What do you do in your current role?

On a day-to-day basis I speak to teachers to advise, guide and support them on the best ways of teaching the subjects that I’m in charge of for Cambridge OCR.

I also look for opportunities to talk to different external stakeholders from different subject organisations to really make sure that our qualifications are as good as they can be, and to make sure that I’m providing the customer voice to the wider organisation of Cambridge University Press and Assessment.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I really enjoy being able to work with autonomy and to be able to trust my instincts to try new things, which I think is really important. But also, no day is the same and so you never know quite what’s going to happen. That’s challenging sometimes, but it’s also exciting.

We also get to do some volunteering as part of our job. So as part of this, I’ve recently become a Trustee for the Sociological Review Foundation, which is a key subject association and charity within sociology. I really enjoy being able to contribute actively to the subject community and to give something back in that way.

I’m also a brand champion for my organisation. As of September (2025), we’ve moved from OCR to Cambridge OCR and getting the word out about that has been something I’ve certainly enjoyed doing. Trying to be as competitive as we can in the education market – making sure we can do the right things, put ourselves in the best possible position to be the trusted experts for every qualification in the country – is a challenge, but I’m certainly excited to be a part of it.

What impact does your role have?

I like to think that my role helps to make every teacher’s life, who delivers Cambridge OCR qualifications, a little bit easier.

A teacher’s job is to empower students to be the best they can be and to foster an interest in what they’re going to do when they leave school and to help students prepare for that next step. There’s lots of aspects of my job that helps teachers to do that, which ultimately then helps students as well.

Why did you choose to study social science?

I chose social science subjects because they offered me something different. I hadn’t really studied them at GCSE at all, but I was quite hungry for something a little bit different that allowed me to maybe question some of the cultural norms and values that I’d grown accustomed to.

I love looking at different perspectives on things and understanding why we do things. When I think about the societal problems and issues that there are at the moment and maybe how society is becoming a bit more fragmented, I think the social sciences give a great deal of insight not just into exploring why things happen but also what could be done about them. I think that’s a really powerful thing, to be able to use evidence in that way, and that’s a large part of what attracted me to the social science subjects in the first place.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

It’s hard to think that far ahead! I love my current job, but as Cambridge OCR is part of Cambridge University Press and Assessment, there’s lots of opportunities in other areas of the organisation that could be of interest to me – there’s Cambridge English, Cambridge International Education and Cambridge Insight, for example. So, branching out into one of those could be a possibility for the future.

Also, given all the jobs I’ve had so far from running pubs, to teaching and being a subject advisor, I’ve picked up lots of different skills. And because of the degree that started it all, social science, that has also given me lots of different skills that would enable me to go in many different directions if that’s what I wanted.

What would you say to someone considering studying or pursuing a career in the social sciences?

The social sciences can get you into so many different careers. Just to name a few examples, you can work for local government, you can become a police officer, you can become a teacher, which I did, sales and marketing, law firms, I’ve got friends who work in finance and hedge funding and they’ve got degrees in social sciences. So, studying the social sciences really does make your CV stand out because it helps you to understand humans and I think that’s a really powerful tool when embarking on any career really.

This interview was undertaken in 2025 and was correct at the time of publication. Please note that the featured individual may no longer be in role, but the profile has been kept for career pathway and informational purposes.