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.

They would. But we also want society to benefit from them too. The 'working class' consist of millions of people, many of whom have significant inate intelligence, plus skills, knowledge and personal qualities that could be of huge value to society in roles of responsibility abd influence. However, society will never get to benefit from these people if opportunities to participate stay within one demographic, going down the generations. Schemes like this proactively attract talent from untapped sources. So unless you genuinely believe that the children of the wealthy middle class are automatically the best we can get, simply by accident of birth, I don't see how you could think this was anything other than a positive.

Funny how this is only done at the lowest level and not Senior Civil Servant level where it's almost impossible to get a job if you're not already in the CS. I heard that something like 75-80% of SCS jobs only go to internal CS (even though they advertise externslly), most of whom I strongly suspect lack the diversity they're aiming for....

Oh good. Your post very much read like only the middle classes, who get there by connections, could be competent and those from more working class backgrounds, who might need help building connections, couldn't possibly be.
And, of course, that's what schemes like this are about. It's giving the kids who don't know mum or dad's doctor/ solicitor/ TV producer/ civil servant mate, who can give them a foot in the door, a way in. It's about levelling the playing field, for children.

This is just rich person who buys privilege and opportunities complaining that poor person gets a leg up and not kept in their place. What a disgusting person you are.

I didn’t read it like that? Didn’t that poster just mean just employ the best person for the job (regardless of background). Which isn’t a bonkers idea.

I think it's a brilliant idea. I stood outside one of the London government buildings at home time , and irrespective of colour, they all looked like they'd come out of the same middle class mould. We need people from different backgrounds informing government policy. We might not be in the mess we're in if the policy makers were a bit more working class.

@Quirkswork you are completely getting this initiative twisted.

No one is increasing anything at the expense of another. The whole point of this scheme is to level the playing ground and encourage applicants from a wider more diverse social-economic background in order to make the workforce more reflective of the society it serves.

Those children deemed of a more middle class/affluent background STILL have every chance of getting into the Civil Service by the very fact they are from this group and obviously research shows this is not a demographic struggling to get into the CS without such schemes. So I have no clue why you’re getting so worked up about this.

What you are insidiously suggesting is deeply, deeply offensive OP and extremely classist.

Thank goodness there are a few and far between, very much needed, opportunities to get talented competent young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to be included.

I read this this morning and was quite surprised because i remember looking at the CS summer schemes 10+ years ago and them already being aimed at increasing diversity. I did not apply but a lot of my peers did and only 1 white gay working class man got the summer scheme.

However, when it came to the fast stream oxbridge seemed to be the door opener. Back then the fast stream pay was actually decent graduate money, however that has changed. Especially with the moving around during the scheme (necessitating shorter rental contracts) I don’t know how graduates without family backing or a home in London are supposed to be able to take part. As with their drive for diversity in teaching and the arts, the government needs to look at the barriers to working class people getting the foothold.

You're just taking a group of people that you know personally and extrapolating it to any child whose parent didn't tick the box when they were 14. As if they are just one homogenous overprivileged group.

Agree with publishing. I presume. Not knowing anyone in that industry so will have to take your word for it. Although AI will probably wreck that industry too.

I am a civil servant and have worked in a number of different government departments. In my experience the middle and upper echelons of the civil service is filled with middle and upper middle class people, and associated group-think. This is not at all good for the country. I completely support the ring fencing of summer internships for working class young people and just wish it had always been so. It’s a (small) start.

But there won’t be different backgrounds- just the privately educated who will continue to form 59% of the workforce and those from he poorest back grounds who already get higher student loans, out reach and contextualised offers. Those just over and above many of whom will be in struggling families are excluded even more.

My husband is a senior civil servant and his career only started because he found out about the CS grad scheme by accident at age 27 after only having agency jobs. He grew up in a working class family in a very deprived northern city. His parents had no idea about grad schemes or internships. He is the type of person they want to reach: incredibly smart and competent but harder to reach. I, on the other hand, had been primed from a young age on what grades to aim for, which extracurriculars to do, grad scheme assessment days etc. I had the help I needed to get going but for people that don't, schemes like this are invaluable. Do you also disagree with the CS internship for disabled students?

Rubbish. I'm not being in any way insidious. I don't agree with social engineering at all. I've already said it very clearly.

The electricians and plumbers I know are incredibly well paid - there are several trade parents at DC’s private school. So would they qualify on the basis of their parents job, despite being at independent school?

Absolutely fantastic idea (from someone who pays a LOT of tax and if my children were at that stage would not qualify)

There has been great progress in social mobility in the last few years with initiatives such as the 93% club and now things like this.

Many companies, including the one I work for, have been doing initiatives such as this for years - it is nothing new. Glad to see the public sector catching up

Yes. Competent ... as opposed to working class.

No. I don't disagree with that. I think disabled students should get extra assistance.

OP, what were your parents’ jobs when you were 14, and what level is education did they complete? What is your job now and what level of education did you complete? Do you have children?

None of your business.

I'm not here to argue on a personal level. I'm here to argue that social engineering is wrong. Am I allowed?

My eldest applied for the intern program- she didnt get a role but got to the end of the process to be rejected at interview stage sadly. Out of a very large wider family we all very proud she got to uni, not a path any of my wider family have taken.

My children have a large age gap and my youngest wouldnt now qualify. Even though both parents never went to uni. All because we as parents worked hard to get to where we are now. I accept that even though neither of us has the right background certain privileges do exist for us. Im also grateful that the company i now work for looks for more than just uni degree.

But me as a child, would have benefited alot from a programme like this. The difficulty was my parents both very working class and they didnt know what options out there - i do think this is a great idea BUT you need to find a way of engaging these younger people who need guidance on applying or how to find the opportunities - my parents didnt have a clue and to them you just got a job at 16.

So you think it's okay for certain people with a disadvantage to get help but not others? And I say that as a disabled person.

Well your ability to pay for private education means you’re all right Jack so you would think it’s great. Social mobility isn’t the top 59% continuing to be over represented whilst jobs are shuffled and those in the middle have things made harder.

I haven't RTWT but in my experience electricians and plumbers can be very well paid. More so than many people in middle class jobs.

It sounds like you could do with educating yourself quite a bit in the realities of how most internships work before sounding off on the supposed unfairness of working-class children having access to a few of them. My point isn’t just anecdotal, it’s been very widely acknowledged for decades as a problem, all I’m saying is that I’ve seen it in action.