Civil Service internship. Only children of the "working class"

[Quirkswork]

If your child is coming up for 14 and interested in a career in the Civil Service and you have a job in a profession or that means you pay a lot of tax, I suggest you down tools now.

As reported in the Telegraph,

Civil Service internships will only be offered to students from lower income families in a bid to make Whitehall more working class, ministers have announced.

Only young people from “lower socio-economic backgrounds” will be able to apply to Whitehall’s internship programme, the Cabinet Office has said.

A student will be judged eligible depending on what jobs their parents did when they were 14. Students with parents who are receptionists, electricians, plumbers, butchers or van drivers would be among those eligible for the programme.

It’s just base spite. Luckily they’ve ran out of money quite early on this time, so practicality rather than twisted resentment ideology will be back on the menu soon.

I come from a similar background to you, first to go to uni etc and have done ok - qualified to PhD level. I am not wealthy. In fact I struggle sometimes. However I feel that I am still much better off than when I started out. My education gives me many more options than some and I want that to be made possible for as many deserving working class people as possible. None of us gets to where we are without a helping hand of some sort.

Working class should mean people who are working - which generally now includes most of the people called middle class! I’m a one parent family so I only get one tax allowance for my one income, unlike two parents earning a bit less than me who take home more. This idea is massively divisive.

several posters conflate money with access. This scheme isn’t for ‘poor kids’, it’s for kids who don’t come from a traditional civil service background. As a parent, you may well
want to have a conversation about earning potential (lots of blue collar jobs pay great, not all white collar jobs pay brilliantly) however this is about ensuring that individuals in influential roles come from all sectors of society. This is critical for the civil service which is paid for by everyone and makes decisions impacting everyone. The point is that a highly paid train driver/plumber/electrical fitter, isn’t likely to know too much about how the civil service works, what working there would be like and how best to present yourself to get a job.

Loss of privilege can feel like oppression OP...Middle class kids have tenfold advantage over the working classes. I was a working class child and now im firmly MC in terms of jobs,finance,social circles and I can see with my own eyes those privileges.

So what is this level playing field you are arguing for? And how does excluding students based on their parents’ job at 14 achieve it? Clearly if students are excluded from even applying then it is not a level playing field in respect of the internship, so we are not talking about a level playing field for that. So what are you arguing for a level playing field for? Civil service faststream jobs? But they hardly represent a level playing field in life either do they? If you are in the civil service fast stream then you are privileged over others - are you saying it is ok at that point?

So basically those from families with incomes higher than others get a leg up because their parents job is on the right list- that’s fair then.

Really encouraging for the non privately educated whose parents are slogging away at the wrong jobs.

Same, my kids won't benefit from this but I'm all for it. I'm very much help other people up the ladder now I can rather than pull it away.

Yanbu

I don’t think children of plumbers or electricians are exactly underprivileged either. I reckon with AI and inevitable cuts to Whitehall they may be better to follow their parents’ path anyway.

Can you put anything tangible or quantifiable to:
tenfold advantage
working class
middle class

It is pulling it away.

So a £40k bricklayer and somebody with a cleaning “business” or who works in a care home who can afford to take their kids abroad and eat out at Nando’s get a leg up whilst those in less “ working class” jobs on less or the same get nothing. That isn’t fair and does not achieve equality. It’s stupid.

The point is that a highly paid train driver/plumber/electrical fitter, isn’t likely to know too much about how the civil service works, what working there would be like and how best to present yourself to get a job.

🤣🤣🤣

Oh please.

Eating at Nandos? 🤣 These class grievance threads crack me up.

Class and wealth are not the same thing.

Could you expand on that?

Good. I have long observed that while the Civil Service does not have a ethnicity, sex or sexual orientation issue it does have a class problem.

Care to define working class and middle class- the phrases seem to be oft quoted with little substance. Fire away! I think you’ll find it’s impossible so said list of what is a working class/ middle class family is impossible and a ridiculous idea hence this being a ridiculous and bloody awful idea which really highlights how little Labour understand what life is like for the squeezed middle. Shame as they will need their votes come election time and are massively shooting themselves in the foot.

I’m from the middle class. Both my husband and I are working professionals and we have zero contacts in anything my children are interested in. My child didn’t get any work experience as a result as we had no one to ask. These ridiculous sweeping generations are always very annoying that there is somehow a mysterious ‘network’ once you get over a certain income or attend private school.

The point is that a highly paid train driver/plumber/electrical fitter, isn’t likely to know too much about how the civil service works, what working there would be like and how best to present yourself to get a job.

But if they are on high salaries then they are likely to have bought houses in better neighbourhoods, sent their kids to better schools/private schools, supported them to apply for better universities and have surrounded them with the middle class children. They are also likely to have come into contact with civil servants - not least in completing tax returns.

Can you define class please, something measurable if possible? All this seems like nonsense to me, but I’d still like to know if I’m working class(good) or middle class (bad) and if my children are privileged or oppressed.

It’s not measurable is it?
But you absolutely know what it is.
Im not answering faux confused questions.

I’m not a bricklayer and have zero idea how to get my kids into the civil service. No way can we afford private and I earn a lot less than a train driver, bricklayer and most of the trades.

Remind me why my kids are being excluded again.

I absolutely don’t, so tell me.

I just think it's hilarious. Like the working class who have money are lording it over the impoverished middle classes with their trips out to Nandos.