EDIP Intern Review

Gave an incredible insight into the jobs of civil servants, how they work together and the sheer skills and qualities that they develop as a result of their jobs, which I find particularly attractive, especially the end goals which produce laws that help address the biggest issues that society face. The opportunity to network with people from such diverse backgrounds was incredible and developed me in a short space of time to approach things as open minded and accepting as possible to achieve the most out of an opportunity.

It was made clear from the get go that each of us had unique experiences with the world around us that needed to be invested in and could unlock further positive developments in our country. The roles given to me during my shadowing part of the week were active work which had a dual benefit in that I had learnt a great deal about the intricacies of the legal system and the operations of the government as well as contributing and supporting the second clerk of the justice select committee.

The fast streamers and the civil service understand that we were independent and intuitive people who could solve challenges that we found in our work but were always on hand to clarify or to help demonstrate the framework in which they worked in and what the end goal should be, much like the real world expectations.

In terms of research I learnt a great deal in efficiency and speed, working in a small timeframe with a sizeable and jargon dense document, which is much like my degree and should definitely prove beneficial in improving my organisation and how effectively my time is utilised. It also helped skills that would be integral to a working environment particularly in terms of working with others and tying together strengths to produce a more successful result than could be achieved alone.

We had an opening ceremony which laid the groundwork as to what to expect and what we should endeavour to do and garner from the experience. It was then followed by professional skills development and learning explicitly about the application process and how to get an edge in the competitive process. The following days were taken by shadowing placements which allowed us to place our ambitions in action as well as developing our knowledge of government machinery before the closing ceremony summarised our experiences together and allowed us to understand which experiences would be most useful as well as allowing further networking to learn from other interns who had worked across the whole breadth of government.

From the welcoming party, it was clear that everyone was enthusiastic, optimistic and keen to learn and hear of other's experiences and backgrounds as well as help each other develop and become successful leaders for the future both within the staff and interns. There was a spirit of healthy competitiveness with no one expressing an arrogant or over confident outlook nor looking down upon any work by others, which has been seen before in many other placements.

The shadowing provided the greatest investment in being able to work exclusively with a fast streamer who could provide recent experiences on the process of recruitment as well as being able to provide detailed insights into their role and how they contribute to a larger organisation's success which is often overlooked. In terms of being able to talk with the most senior figures in the civil service, it provided a brilliant chance to garner information as to the overarching structures and how they operate as a connection between government and the civil service departments which helps develop transferable skills.

Because of the confidential nature of the work undertaken by the civil service it was difficult to get unrestrained access to ongoing works which in some cases required the utmost discretion but every effort was made to engage us with work that was relevant and accurate as well as providing autonomy to complete a task in a similar fashion as expected as if working at the civil service.

While in the general workshops, a lot was learnt in terms of the values that were critical for working in the civil service departments namely integrity and impartiality. Work related skills were honed in on during the shadowing experience, where they helped to complete the work specific to researching justice reports.

This insight had confirmed my career aspirations towards applying to the Civil Service Fast Stream and has helped me highlight the skills that will prove most useful for getting into the stream that I most wish to as well as establishing a great connection to the role of the civil service and exploiting other jobs closely tied to it.

We were informed that expenses for travel and accommodation would be reimbursed to a certain value ( due to the financing capacity in the public sector) and the forms were given to complete after the placement.

Networking was offered throughout the internship with structured workshops oriented around networking and the opportunity to informally do so in the departments we worked in and the lunch breaks we had with other interns.

The first workshop was great to get an understanding of the interns' backgrounds and reasons for applying as well as career aspirations which helped developed communication and listening skills. The chances to socialise with fast streamers was great in terms of gleaming information from that would prove useful and would be a rare chance to get elsewhere.

While not explicitly outside of work, we learnt a great deal about the secondment opportunities offered in the Civil service namely in NGPBs, arms-length organisations and the private sector which went to reinforce the diversity in career opportunities in the Civil Service.

It provided a great chance to learn the inner workings of government as well as providing the understanding to apply and complete the full graduate scheme. This is great for those who wish to explore other avenues or have uncertainty about tying down to one career pathway as this enables it to remain open through working in different departments in different capacities.