Student Placement

The responsibilities for the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero for 2023 are as follows:

Delivering security of energy supply

Ensuring properly functioning energy markets

Encouraging greater energy efficiency

Seizing the opportunities of net zero to lead the world in new green industries

For 2023, our priorities are:

Ensure security of energy supply this winter, next winter and in the longer-term – bringing down energy bills and reducing inflation.

Ensure the UK is on track to meet its legally binding Net Zero commitments and support economic growth by significantly speeding up delivery of network infrastructure and domestic energy production.

Improve the energy efficiency of UK homes, businesses and public sector buildings to meet the 15% demand reduction ambition.

Deliver current schemes to support energy consumers with their bills and develop options for long-term reform to improve how the electricity market works for families and businesses.

Seize the economic benefits of Net Zero, including the jobs and growth created through investment in new green industries.

Pass the Energy Bill to support the emerging CCUS and hydrogen sectors; to update the governance of the energy system; and to reduce the time taken to consent offshore wind.

Our Inclusive Environment

We are building an inclusive culture to make the Department a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.

We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive.

We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion. We will fully support candidates with a disability or long-term condition who require adjustments in our recruitment process.

Find Out More

We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/departmentforenergysecurityandnetzero?

You can also follow our LinkedIn Careers Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/desnz-careers/

The Energy Statistics team in DESNZ is offering exciting opportunities for university students completing a UK undergraduate degree with placement year. Never before has energy and climate change been more in the public light and at the centre of government policy. As part of the Energy Statistics team you will work with hardworking statisticians providing data and evidence on energy to support government policy making and monitoring.  We are also responsible for meeting international data reporting requirements, supporting Departmental work to advise and brief Ministers and senior officials, and responding to parliamentary questions and public correspondence about energy information.

This role is only open to undergraduate students for whom this placement forms part of their degree course, e.g.students currently in the second year of a three-year course with a placement year.

We will place successful candidates in a team which covers one of the areas below:

•   Analysing electricity generation data for regular publications relating to the security of electricity supply and developing analysis to further the inclusion of renewable generation types.
•  Collecting and analysing oil and gas data, with a focus on helping manage the UK’s emergency oil stockholding system and providing policymakers with data and analysis to support evidence-based decision making.
•  Collecting and analysing data on domestic energy bills, monitoring the impact of consumers switching between energy suppliers and other analysis on the prices paid by industry and households for fuel & energy in the United Kingdom.
•  Analysis of households who are living in fuel poverty to identify the most vulnerable households living in in-efficient homes enabling resources to be targeted to upgrading these.

Placement students are also given the opportunity to write and contribute to published articles in these areas of work, and to contribute to development of code-based production systems.

Further information on these statistics can be found on the team’s webpage using this link: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/total-energy-statistics

Please let us know if you have an interest in one of the areas above. There are no guarantees that students are placed according to their area of interest, however, we will certainly take this into consideration.

Please note that the DESNZ Energy Statistics team is based in London. Any successful applicants based in Salford will be managed remotely using Teams video calls and e-mails.

Skills and Experience 

In order to meet the requirements of the role, the student will need to demonstrate the following competencies when completing the application form:

•            Sound analytical skills, along with a grasp of descriptive and inferential statistics;
•            Interpersonal and team working skills;
•            An ability to apply themselves to solving problems, 
•            An ability to work accurately without the need for supervision on some projects; and
•            Demonstrate strong initiative to learn and use new skills rapidly to complete a project or task.

 Desirable experience

•            Experience writing code to manipulate data and/or carry out statistical analysis using Python/SQL/SAS

Essential Criteria

This role is only open to undergraduate students for whom this placement forms part of their degree course, e.g.students currently in the second year of a three-year course with a placement year.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Statistics – Data Analysis and descriptive statistics

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an average employer contribution of 27%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

Job contact :

• Name : Chris Michaels
• Email : chris.michaels@energysecurity.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : desnzresourcing.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk