Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme 2015

You know if you could tolerate the coach and the delays that come with it £2k isn't that bad, I'm looking at £1500 just for London travel, albeit I'll be in zone 5 but still atleast you won't have rent to pay.

I can sympathise. The way it stands I could very well be commuting 2hrs or so each way. Once everything is finalised I think it might be an idea for London-based people commuting in to have a think about the possibilities of flatshares etc. So far it seems like a number of us area bit stuffed in this regard.

What are you guys talking about? You are okay with wasting 4 hours of your life everyday commuting? 8-9h shift, sleep, cooking, and you got nothing left. With the pay offered you can easily find affordable place to rent close by even on your own and in London. Why do you think there's a bump in pay for Londoners? Not to mention flat share. The minimum pay offered here, £19.5k pre-tax / N.I. is well above minimum wage (£6.5 * 40 hours * 52 weeks = £13.5k). You can easily afford to live on your own, considering people with minimum wages have been doing that always.

I would understand the part about saving the money living with parents if you were 30 minutes away from work place. But traveling 4 hours a day, 2 hours each way, just lol. Not to mention I would still recommend moving out and getting to live on your own or flat-sharing, as it is a great life experience and will help you get more mature and independent, which will become visible at how you handle things.

37 hours a week (full time) on the 21+ minimum wage is £240 a week - most studio/1 bed rents cost more than this, so I highly doubt people with minimum wage have been doing that.

I understand what you're saying, but please realise thousands of people commute everyday. Nobody particularly enjoys it but for some people it is the choice they make. On £19.5k you would struggle greatly to live on your own in zones 1-3. For a studio you are looking at least £1000pm and for a 1 bed even more. So I get where you're coming from and understand that the salaries in London are likely to be more than £19.5k, but 50% of your salary spent on rent is a lot!

Yeah, maybe you should stop looking to rent inside the city hall. You can find 1 bedroom apartments 3 miles within Westminster for £700 a month.

And yeah, when I was talking about minimum wage to be honest I wasn't talking about London, with that you wouldn't do much in London. Well, not in the main zone. But outside of it yeah you can deal with it. But with 21-23k you going to get in London you can spare 700-800 a month on an apartment.

And no, please think about it. 4 hours of commute? This is not 1 hour. You going to work 8 hours. Commute 4 hours. Don't forget you need to get ready before going out. 1 more hour. Sleeping 8 hours. 21 hours. 3 hours left. Shopping, cooking, cleaning, time to relax, read a book, watch a series, meet friends? Or are you going to leave most of the household duties to your mom to take care of?

Say what you want, commuting every single day for 4 hours to work is insane, when you can afford to rent nearby, or flat share at least.

I completely respect your opinion however I would point out that thousands of people that commute every day can't be wrong. Many people have other commitments like family or schools where they live. Many people spend 4 hours commuting every day, in fact the average London worker spends 75 minutes getting to work. I'm not talking about living in City Hall, and I'm intrigued to find this apparent abundance of 1 bedroom flats for £800pm 3 miles from Westminster.

The majority of people who work in London commute at least some distance by train. For most of them weekdays do involve getting up at 6am and possibly not getting home until 7pm. That gives them time to eat dinner in the evening, maybe spend some time with their kids and generally relax in front of the TV before retiring to bed at 10 or 11pm. It might sound like you're having no life in this situation but that is what the weekends and annual leave are for. Most people commute for a larger house and better quality of life, since at present prices outside the cities are much lower.

Even renting in the outskirts or less desirable areas of London can be expensive still, and the further away you get from the city, the more you have to factor in any train tickets you will need to buy. Broadly speaking people spend 30% of their income on rent.

It's all about pros and cons, and that's why to some extent I understand what you're saying. As an example I mentioned earlier, imagining you live in Oxford which would you pick out of these:

Option 1 - Live in Central London by renting a 1 bedroom flat, costs maybe £1,000pm. And then spend £5-10 a day on Oyster fares getting to work and back (adds up to about £100-200 a month).

Option 2 - Live in Oxford renting a 1 bedroom flat at around £500-600pm, and spend £4,788pa (£400pm) on a train season ticket to Paddington (add £780pa for Travelcard). The express train takes around 1 hour.

Option 3 - Live in Oxford renting a 1 bedroom flat at around £500-600pm, and spend £1,193pa (£100pm) on a coach season ticket on the Oxford Tube. The coach takes around 1 hour 40 minutes, traffic permitting.

Different people have different tastes. One man might want all the time he can to do whatever he wants (shopping, cooking, cleaning, time to relax, read a book, watch a series, meet friends). He would chose to live in London, even if it cost him more. Another guy might want to save as much money as he can, for whatever reason - to pay for his family, to save for a holiday, to save for a car. He would be happy to sacrifice a few hours each day travelling as in the long run he would save a lot.

Anyway, ramble over, just wanted to let you know that you're not wrong, but you're not completely right either.

I think a couple of people said that their references had been contacted. Does anyone know what method this is by? e.g phone, email, letter? Just because one of my reference is overseas and I would preferably like to let them know how they will be contacted etc

Email, as far as I am aware. Was a case of saying if they thought I was suitable for the role.

Email, as far as I am aware. Was a case of saying if they thought I was suitable for the role.

Yeah, maybe you should stop looking to rent inside the city hall. You can find 1 bedroom apartments 3 miles within Westminster for £700 a month.

And yeah, when I was talking about minimum wage to be honest I wasn't talking about London, with that you wouldn't do much in London. Well, not in the main zone. But outside of it yeah you can deal with it. But with 21-23k you going to get in London you can spare 700-800 a month on an apartment.

And no, please think about it. 4 hours of commute? This is not 1 hour. You going to work 8 hours. Commute 4 hours. Don't forget you need to get ready before going out. 1 more hour. Sleeping 8 hours. 21 hours. 3 hours left. Shopping, cooking, cleaning, time to relax, read a book, watch a series, meet friends? Or are you going to leave most of the household duties to your mom to take care of?

Say what you want, commuting every single day for 4 hours to work is insane, when you can afford to rent nearby, or flat share at least.

The role of the framework of the apprenticeship you have been accepted to? Or was a department questioning your referee about a specific position that they were hoping to put you in?

Good question! I don't actually know but I am assuming it is just for the apprenticeship as a whole because if they couldn't place me in that department would they have to contact references again for a new dept etc?

Hmmmmmm. I would have assumed that the department would contact the references, but I'm basing that on nothing at all. None of my references were contacted at any point, and I've had all the confirmation emails etc. I did read someone saying that for some positions they have their apprentices start a few weeks early because of business needs. What did you say your framework was again? And presumably you're punting for London location?

Same I am just assuming, I will try to find out tomorrow exactly who contacted them. Business Admin for London, if I get the dept I have asked for then I'm sure I'll be quite centrally based.

If you wouldn't mind, I'm sure we'd all be curious to know. Maybe we'll hear news pertaining to departments tomorrow anyway..

I live in a small town in the North West. It's probably not the greatest of ideas but 2 years in London seems like a great opportunity to get out of this dead end area and experience something more I've been travelling but actually living somewhere would be kind of fun, expensive but fun. I think I put it as my second preference but just in case I emailed asking if I can make it my first.



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