Government Economic Service Summer Scheme 2025
Government Economic Service & Social Research Profession
Apply before 1:55 pm on Friday 18th October 2024
Details
Reference number
Salary
Job grade
Executive Officer
Contract type
Length of employment
Business area
Type of role
Economist
Working pattern
Number of jobs available
Contents
Location
About the job
Job summary
Job description
Successful candidates will be working with government economists to produce economic analysis and briefings for use across government.
Please refer to the job description pack at the bottom of this page for more details.
Question and Answer Session
There will be a Question and Answer (Q&A) session with the GES Recruitment Team, to chat about the recruitment and application process for this scheme.
Date: Tuesday 8th October
Time: 12:30 - 1:30pm
Place: Virtual, on Microsoft Teams.
We will give you:
Information regarding a career in Government economics and in the Civil Service
- An outline of the recruitment process for the scheme
- Our tips on filling out the application form
Person specification
The successful candidate will demonstrate these key strengths:
- Able to conduct data analysis using MS Excel and other statistical software
- Able to contribute to economic briefings
- Able to contribute to economic analysis
- Able to conduct economic data gathering
- Able to communicate complex analysis in non-technical language to colleagues with different professional backgrounds
If successful, you may be required to undergo security vetting. You therefore must hold, or be willing to obtain, security clearance to CTC/SC level depending on the department you are allocated to. More information about the vetting process can be found at the following link Security Vetting and Clearance Guidance.
More information on the eligibility criteria and completing the application can be found in our Application Guidance Notes at the bottom of this advert.
Qualifications
Applicants must be studying for:
• A degree in economics or, if it is a joint economics 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/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/to be studied during the final two years of the course must be in economics.
All degrees must include Macro and Microeconomics.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Managing a Quality Service
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Macroeconomics
- Microeconomics
Benefits
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
Things you need to know
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Ability, Experience and Technical skills.
To be eligible, applicants must:
Be in the penultimate year of undergraduate study and must be on track for a 2:1 or first-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. To avoid disappointment please do not apply if you are due to graduate in the Summer of 2025, but plan to continue your studies with a post undergraduate degree, such as a Masters.
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 (CSNR): 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.
The GESR Recruitment Team work Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Therefore, technical support will not be available outside of these hours.
Stage 4: Full application form (part 2)
If the minimum (benchmark) standard of the online test is met, you will be invited to fill out the full online application form.
You do not need to list your GCSEs or A-Levels nor upload a copy of your CV on the application.
You will be asked you to provide a 250-word written statement against two Civil Service Behaviour criteria: Communication & Influencing and Working Together. More information on Civil Service Behaviours can be found by following this link. Your responses will be assessed against the behaviours at Level 2 – EO or equivalent.
We recommend you use the STAR approach for your 250-word statements, which helps you set the scene of your examples, show what you did, how you did it, and the overall outcome:
- Situation: Describe the situation you found yourself in, and what happened
- Task: What did you have to do, what did you try to achieve?
- Action: What action did you take, and how did you do it?
- Result: Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from it?
Following this you will be asked 3 additional role specific questions. The first two questions are concerning time spent outside the UK in the last 5 years, and whether you hold a valid work visa (if applicable). The third question will provide space for you to include details of your degree. You should include detailed 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 degree
- 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. (please clearly state this on your form)
Remember you do not need to list your GCSEs or A-Level qualifications.
And once submitted, you will not be able to edit your application.
Stage 5: Pre-sift - 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. If we receive a large volume of applications, we may set our pass mark higher than the Civil Service online test minimum (benchmark) standard.
Stage 6: Sift
In sifting the applications to decide which candidates to consider for interview, we will review your qualification details and 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.
In the interview, candidates will be assessed on two technical skills; Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, in addition to the Civil Service Behaviour; Managing a Quality Service, 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.
Please note that some departments require candidates to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years having spent no period longer than 3 months outside of the UK to get security clearance.
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 summer 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.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : GESR Recruitment Team
- Email : gesrrecruitment@hmtreasury.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : GESRRecruitment@hmtreasury.gov.uk
Further information
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/
