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Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme 2015

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Do people think they will be placed in the region they did their assessment? I currently live in Yorkshire but did my assessment in Newcastle. I was hoping to move back to the north east and have been accepted for business administration
Quick question to all who have been successful, is anyone else a member of a political party? I was trying to make sense of the guidelines on the CS website. Are we not allowed to be members full stop or just not hold any positions within them? If we do, do we have to resign from them immediately or anytime before we start?
Original post by HarrisonLee26
Quick question to all who have been successful, is anyone else a member of a political party? I was trying to make sense of the guidelines on the CS website. Are we not allowed to be members full stop or just not hold any positions within them? If we do, do we have to resign from them immediately or anytime before we start?


We are not allowed to be a member of any political party full stop. I don't know when you'd have to leave but if you are currently a member you'd have to leave. Civil servants are not meant to have any political affiliations at all.
Original post by HarrisonLee26
Quick question to all who have been successful, is anyone else a member of a political party? I was trying to make sense of the guidelines on the CS website. Are we not allowed to be members full stop or just not hold any positions within them? If we do, do we have to resign from them immediately or anytime before we start?



All I remember when looking at applications in the past is it asks if you're a member of BNP. So that would suggest to me that you can't be a member of BNP
Original post by Clear1996
We are not allowed to be a member of any political party full stop. I don't know when you'd have to leave but if you are currently a member you'd have to leave. Civil servants are not meant to have any political affiliations at all.


Hmm I really dont know then. One of the newly elected MP's in my county was a civil servant so ive heard from a few people. I dont think the Conservatives would allow her to stand if she wasnt a member for at least a significant amount of time though. That's why I'm querying because I couldnt make sense of the guidlines as some of it seemed contradicting.

Thank you for the response :smile:
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by HarrisonLee26
Hmm I really dont know then. One of the newly elected MP's in my county was a civil servant so ive geard from a few people. I dont think the Conservatives would allow her to stand if she wasnt a member for at least a significant amount of time thougg. Thats why im querying because I couldnt make sense of the guidlines as some of it seemed contradicting.

Thank you for the response :smile:


I think you CAN be a member but I don't think you can let your political stance influence your work or be involved with political activities.
Original post by AFellaW
I think you CAN be a member but I don't think you can let your political stance influence your work or be involved with political activities.


Thats what I thought would be more realistic! I would expect you being able to be a member but just not be acitve, hold a position or let any of your views influence your work.

Thanks for your input :biggrin:
Reply 867
Avatar for MrDC
MrDC
Original post by HarrisonLee26
Oh really? Were you the guy to my right? Works in EE? Yeah I shall be commuting which shouldnt be too bad when the new station is built juat outside my village! I cant wait ti find out neither. What department do you want ideally? I dont know of anuone else sadly, but seems like a lot of people got placed with a business admin apprenticeship at the same time near enough


Yes yes that was me. That definitely will make it a lot more convenient for you.
I'm not too sure about the departments to be honest, there are loads so it's hard to narrow down, have you got one in mind?


Does anybody know when we will be told about the department and location? I'm hoping they don't delay that because that info is quite important to all of us, I'm not entirely sure what they base it on but I was told at the interview that the departments bid for the candidates based on their scores.
Original post by MrDC
Yes yes that was me. That definitely will make it a lot more convenient for you.
I'm not too sure about the departments to be honest, there are loads so it's hard to narrow down, have you got one in mind?


Does anybody know when we will be told about the department and location? I'm hoping they don't delay that because that info is quite important to all of us, I'm not entirely sure what they base it on but I was told at the interview that the departments bid for the candidates based on their scores.


Yeah that's what I got told aswell, that departments bid on candidates. As for finding out our departments the email we got about sending the documents says they'll be making final decisions on location, role and department within the next 10 days. I got that email 4 days ago so I would assume we'll find out this week.
Original post by MrDC
Yes yes that was me. That definitely will make it a lot more convenient for you.
I'm not too sure about the departments to be honest, there are loads so it's hard to narrow down, have you got one in mind?


Does anybody know when we will be told about the department and location? I'm hoping they don't delay that because that info is quite important to all of us, I'm not entirely sure what they base it on but I was told at the interview that the departments bid for the candidates based on their scores.



Ah nice one! Well done then again (now i know who you are definitely!)! I mentioned my interest in the MoD but also the modules in my sociology course. Hopefullysuch an area will fall my way! How about yourself?

I think we will find out by the end of the week where we are placed as they are getting the 'yes and no' responses finalised first. I cant wait to start though!:biggrin: are there icebreakers for all the apprentices does anyone know?

Oh and the departments do bid for us! I asked the same question!
Original post by Urban_Spaceman
I'm most likely going to be relocating (to London - hopefully) and am interested in what sort of advice or help there will be regarding that. I would be absolutely amazed if there's no internal "find a flatmate" scheme on the Civil Service intranet, or something.

Anyone else intending on relocating to London?

Hope I don't end up having a 2.5hr commute to work every day..


I too am interested in relocating to London. Sharing a 2 or 3 bedroom flat can be considerably cheaper than living alone. However I doubt they will offer any help with this. Even still we can try and sort some things out amongst ourselves.
Has anyone calculated how much they will be spending on travel season tickets? Mine is going to rack up a bill of about £5500! 😣 my sister said that some companies will pay for your travel up front and then deduct it out of your wage each month. Does anyonw know if this is a possibility with the CS?
Original post by HarrisonLee26
Has anyone calculated how much they will be spending on travel season tickets? Mine is going to rack up a bill of about £5500! 😣 my sister said that some companies will pay for your travel up front and then deduct it out of your wage each month. Does anyonw know if this is a possibility with the CS?


£5500?! Oh my! That's 25% of the salary already. I'm glad I live in London, wow.

In terms of season ticket loans I think the Civil Service do it but it's something worth asking still.
Original post by AFellaW
£5500?! Oh my! That's 25% of the salary already. I'm glad I live in London, wow.

In terms of season ticket loans I think the Civil Service do it but it's something worth asking still.


I know! Absolutely scandalous! I weighed up the cost of living in London and its still cheaper to commute from Oxford!
Still, it will all be worth it! And yeah do you think Capita would know or should i ask CS directly?
Original post by HarrisonLee26
I know! Absolutely scandalous! I weighed up the cost of living in London and its still cheaper to commute from Oxford!
Still, it will all be worth it! And yeah do you think Capita would know or should i ask CS directly?


I imagine it would be cheaper, say £600 a month rent for a room then add on another £1k/year for a travel card and it's much more expensive. I would wait to know what department you've been put in then ask them, departments may have varying policies on this?
It probably won't be today as the deadline for confirming offers is today but starting from tomorrow they should be dealing out departments. Exciting times :biggrin:


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Original post by AFellaW
I imagine it would be cheaper, say £600 a month rent for a room then add on another £1k/year for a travel card and it's much more expensive. I would wait to know what department you've been put in then ask them, departments may have varying policies on this?


Dont forget the free meals either by the mother! :biggrin: haha! But joking aside its much more feasible to commute. Ill probably get a bus for the first few months to save up some money and go from there.
yeah thats not a bad shout actually. Our pay is dependent on the department too as wach hs their own budget i read sonewhere. Will be interesting to see what support will be available to us upon employment
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by HarrisonLee26
Dont forget the free meals either by the mother! :biggrin: haha! But joking aside its much more feasible to commute. Ill probably get a bus for the first few months to save up some money and go from there.
yeah thats int a bad shout actually. Our pay is dependent on the department too as wach hs their own budget i read sonewhere. Will be interesting to see what support will be available to us upon employment


Yup, from what I understand pay and leave and things like that are dependant on each department. How much of a salary are we looking at anyway, if the minimum is £19,500 with a London weighting we'd be getting 21-22k maybe?
Original post by AFellaW
Yup, from what I understand pay and leave and things like that are dependant on each department. How much of a salary are we looking at anyway, if the minimum is £19,500 with a London weighting we'd be getting 21-22k maybe?


I think the leave is standard across the board. My dad works at RAL in Oxfordshire where he gets the standard leave and a thing called flexitime where you work a bit longer and get up to two days off each month!
In terms of pay, i would expect about 21000 with it being London, but obviouly anything greater than that would be a bonus! Having said that, after completion, salaries range from anything between 25000 to 45000 after promotion and with experience
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by HarrisonLee26
I think the leave is standard across the board. My dad works at RAL in Oxfordshire where he gets the standard leave and a thing called flexitime where you work a bit longer and get up to two days off each month!
In terms of pay, i would expect about 21000 with it being London, but obviouly anything greater than that would be a bonus! Having said that, after completion, salaries range from anything between 25000 to 45000 after promotion and with experience


Ah didn't know about that flexitime thing, cheers for that. Yeah I mean straight out of school 21k is very good salary and like you said anything above that is a bonus. Time now to wait for the departments and our actual job roles.

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