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.

the final stages of the Fast Stream selection proce

It is not a guarantee to the scheme
They still have to pass

People from lower socioeconomic economic groups at university.

Ah so I would have fallen into this bracket. I have scraped myself into high income, comiNg from a family where noone even had a gcse on my mothers or fathers side.
Navigating the professional world, when noone in your family has a clue, can not help with uni applications, has never worked in an office, can offer zero advice about A levels and couldn't tell you how a student loan works, is very hard.
I think this is a good program. My kids will not be eligable, but I don't begrudge anyone this chance.

he is using quite a narrow definition of "social engineering" which misses out all the social engineering that goes into becoming the "best candidate for the job", e.g. having a dad in the same profession who can help study for the test, having a private tutor, having the space to study because you don't have to live in a B&B temporary accommodation with your whole family etc.

anyway this civil service scheme is an internship, i.e. pre-employment training, so the equivalent for radio man would be if he provided free training in what it takes to be a good worker at his company to poor kids from a no-hope background, and then did a blind application for the real job which is open to everyone

Sounds an excellent plan. The children of well-connected middle class families are born into a huge advantage in the job market - higher expectations; better schools, colleges, tutors; awareness of roles available; friends and family connections. The list goes on.

My DS1 is now established in the civil service after joining the fast stream entry some years ago. The interview/recruitment process is very rigorous and although it is done without the recruiters having access to the information about education etc. most of the appointed graduates have Oxbridge backgrounds. I'm all in favour of the internships going to those from working class backgrounds, and hopefully there will be more applicants for the formal entry scheme if they can see how interesting and worthwhile the jobs are.

But it's not necessarily the money, it's as @ShallIstart says - navigating a completely alien world is intimidating. I've struggled a lot with confidence, etiquette and small talk in meetings and with senior managers who quite literally seem like they're from a different planet.

I think it's quite telling that everyone on this thread who could've benefitted from this scheme as a young person - but their kids wouldn't now - is for it.

The only people against it seem to be solidly privileged people who have no frame of reference for what it actually means to be disadvantaged

So an established plumber earning over six figures yes but a grade 5 nurse no?

What a dramatic post. It's one internship not a complete ban on the middle classes joining the civil service.

It’s not levelling the playing field though. DH would have been eligible for one as one of 7 siblings on free school meals living in a 3 bed terrace house in a northern town at 14. He was/is the only one of the siblings who went to uni and now earns a good salary in the NHS. But his parents would never have been able to afford the train fares to/from an internship or accommodation - because the opportunities won’t be in the town they live in!
It will benefit the lower income families in London who can travel to the job in Whitehall. It won’t benefit a kid from Stoke who’s parents have no chance of covering the cost of an internship.

I didn't even know I could go to uni as in, I didn't know it was an option. Only ONE person from my entire family had been to uni and he went as a mature adult in his 40s. There was absolutely no knowledge in my family about doing anything other than getting from week to week. School funneled the girls into nurseries for work experience. So there would have been no knowledge about any initiatives like this either. And that's the difference. That's exactly why we need to open this world up to the us of today.

Indeed. Some middle class people struggle to understand the disadvantages that children born into working class families experience.

In my case, the fact that we lived in a 2 up, 2 down house with no bathroom meant I was the only student in my A level French class who had never been on the French exchange - all my peers had, 2 or even 3 times. It meant my conversational French was nowhere near as good as theirs and my grade suffered as a result.

Children from professional families have a much better chance of securing internships/placements etc due to their parents’ connections. My DH sorted out a uni graphic design placement for our goddaughter. My cousin gave my DS work experience related to his uni course.

This is an intervention designed to make it easier for less fortunate kids to get a foot in the door. If either of my DSs whinged about this I’d be very disappointed in them.

Surely, they can just lie about what job their parent did.

I think it's great.
I bet the OP is jealous of anything that disadvantaged people get.

It’s an interesting take… most kids from working class families up until very recently have effectively been shut out of these types of internships because they don’t even know about them or have the aspiration to apply.

It’s hard, clearly, when the advantages you once enjoyed because you’re middle class start swinging the other way. And I’m speaking as someone whose kids wouldn’t be able to apply for these internships. But I understand why they are introducing the policy.

The civil service internships are in locations throughout the UK not just London and it’s paid.

It would have been better if they had introduced a new scheme aimed at those disadvantaged. And to reach those who truely struggle to break free of their background it needs to include accommodation and travel too. The fact that the example given by an PP included an inner-city child shows a failure to recognise who are the most underachieving group in society at the moment - white working class boys from seaside towns.

But you might end up with" Tim nice but dim" working there simply as Daddy has a high position

These internships are funded too and applicants can state a preference for location.

What is fair isn’t aways equal.

at the moment, the internship being open to anyone means that the working class are still at a disadvantage (they have to compete with middle class kids who have extra curriculars to talk about, have parents who engage in debates over the dinner table, parents who alert them to these opportunities)
Having a scheme like this means that those kids are closer to a level playing field when actually applying for the jobs.

Think of it in terms of chores for kids. A 8 year old and a 15 year old will not have exactly the same chores or an equal amount of chores - the older one will have more, chores will be age appropriate. That is not equal but it is fair as it takes into account age etc.

You can change your vote - just click on the other option

In that case you'd think you'd be pleased that they are trying to reduce the number of upper class twits with Oxbridge degrees and no clue about anything?

But I doubt there are many in Bognor Regis or Skegness? Pay is one thing when you live at home, completely another when trying to cover six to eight weeks accommodation in a city.