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 also follow exactly the same curriculum as state schools in the exam years (as do private schools) because they are preparing students for the same exams (yes, I’m aware some do IB etc. so do some state schools). Not sure where this ‘elite education’ idea comes from.

So no need to close them, if they're no different..

You have a habit of saying you’ve already answered when you haven’t. You did say your definition of working class was being on free school meals and nobody in your family going to university , are you saying this is the definition the social mobility commission used ? In which case 18% of senior civil servants being working class is over representative of society. Going by identity politics logic of equality of outcome, we need less working class people in senior civil servant jobs.

No different in curriculum or ‘eliteness’ of the education. They confer advantages though. Smaller classes being an obvious one that helps students do better than someone equally as intelligent in a state school.

You probably can’t unfortunately. It’s a shame they’re not more accessible financially, having the choice over what sort of education suits your child is a huge help.

The prejudice ooses from your veins…if you genuinely believe that privately educated people have no ‘life problems”, you have a very distorted view of the World. Likewise, there are people in all socio economic groups that are state school educated. Being state school educated doesn’t automatically mean that you will have “life problems” or that you are poor or working class. In fact, I would say that there are more children of highly educated professional parents at my DC’s state school than there are at my other DC’s private school.

Now there’s an interesting point
😬

I believe the definitions are those used by the social Mobility Commission. Also set out in the gov paper I linked to below.
Sam Friedman is pretty much the authority on this area and his work is worth reading in full.

Which the vast majority don’t have, why only 7% are privately educated and why a Labour government should be doing something about it instead of ridiculous measures like this which just shuffles boxes.

Same situation here and I’d definately agree with that although in my school days behaviour wasn’t really bad at all.
A big advantage though at dcs school was sports, excellent behaviour, good manners and much more subject choice.

( maybe ccf helped with behaviour and manners but now we’re onto Sunaks idea of National Service…ooo! )

In thousands of comments over working class percentages in the civil service, there isn’t one established definition. @cardibach’s definition puts working class people at around 16% of the population, where as the BBC says 51% of the population identify as working class. It’s a pretty meaningless discussion without people using a common definition.

I’m quite happy for some of the Mickey Mouse courses at lower ranked universities…but ending Classics and similar courses would be a travesty. Why do we have such a low level of ambition for our children? Why can’t they be educated to expand their minds? It’s not just about getting a good job. We really are dumbing this country down to the lowest denominator. It’s embarrassing.

Labour have added the tax so less can afford it now

Exactly 👏👏

🤣Loving the way unpopular courses at lower unis are Micky mouse but subjects loved by private schools that are of little use in the workplace and people don’t want to do are worth saving. If people don’t want to do the subjects and are barred from schools that teach them in the first place the writing is on the wall. Not having enough money is tough as the person below kindly pointed out. You live by the sword you die by the sword.

Because I believe that all students should have internship opportunities. I am aware of many being limited so that they are only open to those from certain socio economic groups or who have not had any of their education in a private school (even if it was just for a couple of years because they were let down by their state schools and their parents had to take drastic action). Many big companies recruit on a blind basis now for permanent positions. I believe it should be the same for internships.

‘subjects loved at private schools of little use in the workplace’

A simple Google proves incorrect

Also of note classics is another humanity subject with historical and literature based learning and links to languages ie Greek
and Latin another language that also has history links

Yes it seems things have got much worse . Parent behaviour also seems to have gone down hill. You generally get to avoid this at independent schools. I don’t want my kids to be part of it.
https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/article-listing/teachers-declare-pupil-behaviour-emergency.html#:~:text=20%25%20of%20teachers%20surveyed%20have,at%20least%20once%20a%20term.

I have a degree and a professional job and pretty sure our local plumber earns a lot more than me

This isn’t the only internship opportunity with the CS. I linked some others earlier - some with their own eligibility criteria, some open to all. Not to worry!

Of note
In Terms of fun subjects to learn that are humanity based, which we know more boys avoid,Classics is a winner with the myths and legends part of the syllabus

What jobs do classics lead to? Why are they so unpopular?

Classics is taught in some state schools. Latin not so much.

Those figures are shocking. No wonder there aren’t enough teachers.
Maybe Sunak had a point then

The point is that by limiting the number of places to private school pupils, it would end some courses (even at the most wealthy and prestigious universities). What is the point of that? How is that helping students from lower socio economic groups? My state school educated cousin took MFL including German. That most likely wouldn’t have been an option if entry was restricted to private school students. And yes, there are some Mickey Mouse courses which are pointless. I’m not criticising all courses at lower ranking universities. I went to a former poly myself but some offer a low standard of education with little job opportunities.

Actually, education isn’t training. If enough peo0le want to study classics, great. Let them. I’d also like more availability of these subjects in state because they are interesting and offer good opportunities to make connections with modern culture (as well as other good th8ngs about them). And I’m a proper lefty.

Sorry but better equality needs to come first. Courses the privately educated are more likely to do are not the priority.