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.

then what is the point of this internship then if the Working class children can just apply for the roles to start with?
I might be middle class but I wouldn’t have any idea myself what working in the civil service entails and neither would my children.

The child of the receptionist is still financially disadvantaged. Financial disadvantage leads to myriad more disadvantages.

Children who are disadvantaged in life will get a small boost to help even the playing field - seems right. They have looked at the data and seen children’s class still matters after they leave uni. It will enable them to learn some of the things your children learn from private schools or the best state schools ( which tend to be in expensive areas)

you want to identify as working class to get the boost for your child? How do you feel if someone incorrectly identified as black or female to get other such support?

Yes I’ve asked for measurable criteria of these factors. My example of salary was to help you understand what I‘m asking.

It appears to me that you are unable to define class using criteria that are independent of individual opinions or biases.

Because candidates with better grades from more affluent areas and universities are significantly more likely to succeed via the usual application routes. Disadvantaged young people aren’t.

Can you also descend class? for example you lost your job

I know a very poverty stricken upper class lady. Definitely upper class even though she barely has a penny to her name.

How are you defining working class?

I’m not sure why so many poster seem to think this means the CS or the government think being a professional/middle class is bad. This is just a way to encourage a few less advantaged people to consider the CS as a career.
This isn’t the only such scheme. Here are a few more (not exhaustive, 5 min google search), so no need to worry about middle class erasure:
https://careers.homeoffice.gov.uk/internships
https://careers.homeoffice.gov.uk/early-talent
https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/cma-internships-at-the-cma/
https://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/our-careers/early-careers/summer-placements.html

Haven't read all the details on this yet, but my initial thought is how clueless and out of touch are they, to think an unpaid placement is an option many people from this demographic will even be able to afford to take up in the first place?!

(And before anyone snarls at me re 'this demographic', I'm drawing directly from my own background and experiences in forming my opinion.)

I’m not sure how these criteria make ‘working parents bad’?

these criteria are criteria I have seen before. You don’t have to meet them all, just one or more. As I said, I’m not sure exactly what the application process is for this particular scheme however I’ve shared this so people saying you can’t define class or legitimate eligibility criteria can see an example of how this is done.

re: 50% of people going to uni and schemes like this becoming defunct. Yes, that is the point. The schemes aren’t there forever, they are there to address an imbalance. And that imbalance will have had to be demonstrated to actually exist at an organisational
level otherwise this scheme would be illegal. When no one qualifies, that is something to celebrate. I believe this scheme may be replacing some of the efforts to encourage non-white applicants. If that is the case and multiple ethnicities are now represented, this is a good thing.

If you think people are treated as individuals on mass at application stage, without or without a socially engineered internship, then you’re deluded.

That might explain the parlous state of the country then.

The internship placements are paid. The fast-stream summer internship this summer paid £430 a week.

Have you read the thread? Or thought about it for a second?
Many (not all) the young people at whom the scheme is aimed will have no idea what the CS does, what office work is like, or that it’s even a possibility for ‘someone like them’. It gives them an opportunity to see if it’s suitable. And yes, it gives them a bit of an advantage in applying should they so decide, to set against the advantages in terms of cultural capital etc that some (not all) middle class young people have.

That makes more sense, thanks for the info.

I can see the point of the principle of this but how exactly are they going to decide who is working class or otherwise? For example child of divorced parents - mum works as part time receptionist or a TA or similar but dad has a professional job. Children live with mum - are they working class or middle class?

@NaicePeachJoker

• parental occupation (skilled manual &below)
• FSM (received)
• first gen uni
• non-selective state school

these are actual criteria I have seen before. Candidates meeting one or more criteria are encouraged to apply and may also be guaranteed an interview. Caveat here, I’m not talking about the civil service scheme here, just sharing an example. I would have qualified (rightly); my child would not qualify (rightly).

Jesus Christ, OP. They demonstrate that they can be the best person for the job THROUGH THE INTERNSHIP which they would be less likely to get a placement on without the working class scheme because they are automatically more disadvantaged. Gosh, it must be crippling in life to be this dense.

Your "gotcha" point is that you can't measure class therefore it is not real, is not as compelling as you clearly believe it is. Especially when there are endless social categorical definitions that can never be measured. Culture, race, identity, everything can be made abstract.

In actuality your questions, while they attempt to feign an air intellectual superiority, reveal your commitment to obtusity.

Intelligent parents will temporarily job change when their child is 14.

Or the candidate just makes shit up.

Sorry, I can't understand why people are so worked up about this when the actual predicate is impossible to (a) define and (b) police.

Make me prove what my parents did (or did not) do when I was growing up.

Just in case people are still replying to me personally. I don't want to waste anyone's time as I haven't read their replies. Apologies.

When I’m recruiting, the single most important factor I base my hiring decision on is what a candidate’s parents did for a job when the candidate was 14. If they satisfy this then I look at competence, qualifications, experience etc

@Littleredridingoodie offered these a few pages back. All measurable.

• parental occupation (skilled manual &below)
• FSM (received)
• first gen uni
• non-selective state school

Are they a perfect indicator? Probably not. But they get to the group intended and then selection can happen from there. It’s not a case of everyone eligible can do it. There are limited numbers.

It really does show how out of touch this government is. Going by the graph on the BBC article the intermediate socio economic group is the lowest represented in the civil service any way which this will make worse.

Would love to know how they get reliable evidence of family profession at 14. You could say anything .

I'll keep identifying as whatever I like it's 2025 I lied about being mixed race and bisexual and got a job I'm unqualified for (I'd like to see them prove I'm not)

Already got my kids free lunch at school for the whole of primary school and free summer camps by temporarily quitting my job just before they started primary school.

Hate the game not the player