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.

Look back over the thread lots of people are commenting on the issues with jobs mentioned.
Almost since page one
Im not starting that up all over again

Its Quite obvious just from mumsnet they haven’t looked at this properly

Sutton Trust is biased obviously so quite worthless

We should only look at Independent ones ….
Anything?

Plus one on how Indi parents think
Thanks in advance

ps. I have looked myself.

Def 100%! I would be very happy to pay more tax for improved education. It is worth mentioning that by improving the standards of education across the nation, whilst not you would see the benefits straight away, the economy would improve, the quality of everybody’s lives would improve directly and positively impacting their health (NHS) and social services, policing etc. it is the opposite of the vicious circle we are currently in.

Education is the backbone of a successful generation and therefore nation as a whole.

But is that because those children go to private school or is it because they were wealthier to start with, have a disproportionately higher academic ability, and have motivated, ambitious and professional parents? If all those children went to state school would that make a difference to the jobs they end up doing? I don’t think it would. If anything if you remove private education, it makes it harder for uni’s/employers to positively discriminate as they can’t use private schools as a filter. I personally think if you remove private schools it won’t do anything to make childhoods more equitable.

My kids are hugely disadvantaged with disabilities so know this box cartoon of old. This measure does nothing to even out equalities, nothing. It’s ridiculous suggesting it does. It’s not taking any boxes from the kid in blue but the kid in the middle. So they’ve simply swapped places and the tower the kid in blue stands on stays the same.

Ok well just ignore it. 🤣Says it all.

Thus far the ‘research’ is from the Sutton Trust.
they are biased against private education

So not a reliable source at all

Children from middle class families would have had plenty of privileges that working class kids don’t get. Pretty disgusting that you resent even the tiniest gesture to try to level the playing field a little.

It’s certainly true that The Sutton Trust is focused on improving social mobility.

“Parental occupation is a common measure
used to look at socio-economic background
and extensive research has found that
it is closely related to an individual’s
future occupation,9 a sign of the UK’s
current low levels of social mobility.
Research has also found that even if someone
from a working class background does progress
to a professional or managerial role, they are
less likely to earn as highly as those whose
parents themselves also worked in this type of
profession.10 This ‘class pay gap’, comparing
people in the top professions doing the same
jobs, is estimated to be £6,400 a year.”

https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Social-Mobility-Toolkit-18-10-21-update.pdf

Really such as? What privileges do the kids of a nurse or cab driver have that are higher than a better paid brick layer or shop owner? And how ore said privileges going to enable them to get into the CS when the vast majority are privately educated?

It’s an internship intended to counteract the disadvantage many children face in our very divided country. It’s a fantastic idea.

The disadvantage that children of a family of train drivers on £70k each face over those of a single mum nurse on £34k?

You are making up numbers now. The government’s figures show 1 in 4 are privately educated which is a significant minority.

A comprehensive analysis of over 300,000 civil servants shows just 18% of the Senior Civil Service (SCS) come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and 72% from privileged backgrounds. 1 in 4 of those in the current 6,000-strong Senior Civil Service went to independent school.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/action-plan-to-increase-socio-economic-diversity-in-the-civil-service#:~:text=A%20comprehensive%20analysis%20of%20over,Service%20went%20to%20independent%20school.

It's a blunt instrument, yes.

Just as the cut off for FSM is a blunt instrument for poverty.

But there needs to be a cut off, and things like parental occupation and FSM show a clear relationship with disadvantage. Which is why they are used - yes, there will be individual situations within that.

This is one small work experience scheme to benefit 200 young people who probably wouldn't otherwise get the opportunity to experience working in the CS.

I would have loved this at age 14.

As it was, I was in a single parent household and my mum was a cleaner. I was in top sets for everything and managed to go to Uni (first in family to do so) and achieve the same as all my peers. I just had no real idea of what to do with it all to begin with - yes there were careers fairs, I did my own limited research and worked hard at unpaid internships using savings from my uni job (which none of my peers had to do during their studies either) - but I had no models at home or anyone to turn to for extra work experience or help with applications or anything like that.

I like to think we're evening the playing field.

It is for students in their last two years at university, not teenagers.

That’s the very point @August3r This list of so-called jobs that define how your kids are advantaged or not is ill thought out

Perhaps another method if Labour can bring themselves to accept they’ve got it wrong again would be fairer
I also think those in the middle should be given consideration as it seems every Government forgets they even exist.

It’s just take take take from the middle

Sorry I miss understood. It would have still made a difference to me though as my mum has been a cleaner since school (and still is).

I found the years at Uni were the most stark because even though I was mixing with everyone from upper to working class and working at the same level, they just had opportunities lined up and knew which paths to take to get to XYZ, whereas I didn't have a clue. I worked to earn money to live whilst they did summer internships with family members etc.

This could make the difference to someone like me starting out.

It’s not just about money.

Yes, the poor old middle classes. Will nobody think of us?

If it’s not just about money and if money isn’t a good indicator then it shouldn’t be included

If it is , even in part, then the policy should at least make sense

So
Perhaps it should just be for kids of parents who

• are disabled and can’t work
• earn a max of £8k (or other very low figure ?? because they can’t work more, not because they chose to )
• looked after kids
• kids on social services register as at risk

Now. Of that I fully support!

It must be a very dated list because warehouse worker or packer is not on it at all and there are loads of those jobs nowadays all sorting the online deliveries. So are all those Amazon employees excluded unless they drive a van.

But most don’t have any of that. And actually now you would be on higher loans so those in the lower middle without rich parents will be in the shittiest accommodation and having to work to top up their lower loans. Internships are like gold dust and the privately educated hold the advantages with those too. A nurse or other low paid lower middle jobs isn’t going to help with extra work experience. Unis will help all with applications.

So what are the advantages the struggling lower middle classes have that will break the privately educated barrier?

It’s not an attempt buy votes. Most people won’t know (or care) about it. Only 200 will be selected. It’s not faux anything either. It’s just redefining a previous scheme for disadvantaged groups - or were you this wound up about inequality when it was for ethnic minorities and the disabled?
To tackle inequality we need to go after multi millionaires and billionaires but nobody will accept it.