Avision Ho: Former Mathematics student is a Data Scientist for the government

Avision Ho is a Data Scientist for the Department of Education. Our academically talented and ambitious former student took his AS and A Levels in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Economics, Critical Thinking, Government and Politics, and EPQ before progressing to the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Avision graduated from university in 2016 before shaping his career in Data Science. He spoke to our Alumni Team about his journey.

“The discipline and hard work which I developed at Christ the King Sixth Form College was employed in my subsequent degree and my current work. It has enabled me to go the extra mile to ensure I get a piece of analysis done on time and to a high enough standard,” said Avision. “My time there also helped me decide on what university course to take.”

Avision studied for his BSc in Mathematics and Economics at LSE, where the passion he discovered during his AS and A levels was channelled into a career choice.

“It wasn’t until I reached the second-year of my university course that I realised the type of area I wanted to go into and this was a direct consequence of what I was studying for my degree,” said Avision.

“My main responsibilities as a Data Scientist for the government lie in crafting and developing predictive models as well as producing analysis that informs education policy.

“I’m currently working on some analysis to try and establish whether a link exists between financial and educational performance of trusts using a range of statistical techniques. What makes me proud of this work is the fact that it’s traction with ministers as they are interested in whether such a relationship empirically exists.

Avision also had some advice to his fellow alumni who may be interested in following a similar career path to him: “Take a quantitative course at university, choose at least one statistics module, get some work experience whilst at university (very, very important), and learn to code (ideally in R and/or Python).”

“My ultimate career goal is to continually add value to the department or another department through equipping myself with a greater skillset, specifically coding skills and machine-learning ones, so that I can influence policy in a positive way,” said Avision.

He also plans to take a career break in a few years’ time to pursue a Master’s degree.