Government Economic Service Sandwich Student Placement Scheme 2024/25

To be eligible, applicants must:

Be in the penultimate year of undergraduate study and must be on track for a 2:1 or 1st class degree as indicated by their first-year results. ‘Penultimate’ means that you have one more year at university to complete your undergraduate degree after this placement.

Applicants must be studying for:

• A degree in economics or, if it is an economics joint degree, economics must comprise at least 50% of the total course studied so far (year 1 and 2); or
• A joint economics honours undergraduate degree at a Scottish university, where at least 50% of the modules studied or to be studied during the final two years of the course must be in economics; or
• Philosophy Politics and Economics (PPE) degree where at least 50% of the modules studied or to be studied during the final two years of the course must be in economics.

All degrees must include both Macro and Microeconomics.

Applicants must also:

• Meet the Civil Service Nationality Rules: this means you must be a UK or Irish citizen, a citizen of a Commonwealth country, or a European Union (EU) / European Economic Area (EEA) citizen eligible for the EU Settlement Scheme.
• Have the right to live and work in the UK, without the need for employer sponsorship.
• If a holder of a student visa – be allowed under the conditions of the visa to undertake a full-time paid sandwich placement in the UK without a work permit.
  

To be eligible for employment in the UK Civil Service applicants must meet the CSNRs which operate independently and additionally to the Immigration Rules. Applicants must also meet necessary security and vetting requirements, along with any other relevant pre-employment checks.

Please read the application guidance fully before making your application.

The Recruitment Process

The recruitment process involves the following steps:

Stage 1: Register

Stage 2: Short application form (part 1)

Stage 3: Numeracy test:
The numerical test is the only online test you will need to complete before the full application form. You will need access to a laptop/desktop computer.

Please note: The test deadline is the same as the application deadline.

The numerical test is not timed. Therefore, you should not need to request extra time to complete this test as a reasonable adjustment. Your final score will also not be affected by how long you take to complete the test. For further information on reasonable adjustments and practice tests please read: Reasonable adjustments for online tests – a candidate guide – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you have recently taken and passed the same Civil Service test when applying for a role at the same grade, you will not have to re-take this test. 

Stage 4: Full application form (part 2)

If the minimum standard of the online test is met, you will be invited to fill out the full online application form.

You will be asked you to provide a 250 written statement against two criteria, Communication & Influencing and Working Together. Your responses will be assessed against the behaviours at Level 2 – EO or equivalent.

Following this you will be asked additional question concerning time spent outside the UK in the last 5 years and the third question will provide space for you to include details of your degree.

You do not need to list your GCSEs or A-Levels nor upload a copy of your CV in the qualifications section of the form. You should include more information about your degree as part of the third Role Specific Question, which asks about the economics components of your degree. 

Please ensure that you provide full details about the economic components of your degree. The following information must be included:

• The full subject title of your undergraduate degree, and the year you started
• Your first-year degree grade
• All modules of your undergraduate degree by year, including grades achieved.
• The number of credits allotted to each module and total number of credits taken thus far (where applicable).
• All economics modules should be clearly marked as ‘Econ’.
• Your modules studied so far must include both macro and microeconomics.

Remember you do not need to list your GCSEs or A-Level qualifications.

Stage 5: Online test review and pass mark set. 

This is an internal recruitment administrative process which will take place after the application deadline. Once the pass mark for the test is set, you will receive your result via Civil Service Jobs. 

Stage 6: Sift

In sifting the applications to decide which candidates to consider for interview, particular weight will be attached to the section on behaviours, so do try and think of examples which best demonstrate these.

Candidates who are unsuccessful at the sift stage will not be given any feedback or comments.

Stage 7: Interview at a GES department.

Candidates who are successful at the sift stage will be considered for interview at one of the participating departments. Due to the large volume of applications expected, applicants successful at the sift stage will be randomly allocated to any of the participating departments for their interview.

You will be informed of your interview date by the GES department you are allocated to. Interviews are likely to take place virtually, but please take note that this will be confirmed by the interviewing department.

When invited for the interview, students will be asked to provide a reference from their university economics’ tutor, confirming their suitability for an economist placement.

During the interview, candidates will be assessed on Micro and Macroeconomics as well as Civil Service behaviours through competency style questions.

Stage 8: Post-interview
Candidates will be notified by the Civil Service Jobs portal whether they have been successful or unsuccessful.

Occasionally, a department might withdraw from the scheme before placements are offered or we may have more successful candidates than available placements. In such cases, successful applicants will be placed on the reserve list.

Stage 9: Placement Offer

Successful candidates will be offered a role based on merit. Location preference will be taken into consideration but is not guaranteed.

In the Civil Service, we have ambitious plans to level up career opportunities for people across the UK and have more roles outside of London. This will mean that there are better career opportunities for you across the UK, offering varied roles for diverse talents that reflect the people we serve, and in the process bringing decision-making to communities. For our schemes, we therefore expect to have a high number of posts available in Darlington and Newport.  

Nationality
To be eligible for employment in the UK Civil Service applicants must meet the Civil Service Nationality Rules which operate independently and additionally to the UK Immigration Rules.

Applicants will need to demonstrate that they have the right to live and work in the UK.

If you are a holder of a student visa – be allowed under the conditions of the visa to undertake a full-time paid sandwich placement in the UK without a work permit. If successful at sift, you will be asked, at a later date, to provide a copy of your visa that demonstrates that it covers the period of the placement.

Applicants must also meet necessary security and vetting requirements, along with any other relevant pre-employment checks applicable to their assigned department.

As a minimum everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personal Security Standard (BPSS) checks that require individuals to give a reasonable account of any significant periods (a total of 6 months or more in the past 3 years) of time spent abroad. 

Please note: We do not offer sponsorships for our schemes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you may contact the Civil Service Commission, please see link to their website: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/recruitment-complaints/