In March six of our students were lucky enough to have been selected to attend a fantastic insight day in Whitehall.
The day was co-organised by the Civil Service and the School of Economics and was hosted by the Civil Service Finance Fast Stream.It was a very interesting and useful day involving tours of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Justice and the department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. The students also had the opportunity to meet and chat with Civil Servants about their roles in the Civil Service, what it is like to work in the Civil Service and how they secured their jobs. The day ended with a trip to the House of Commons to listen to a debate.
Pravena Jawahar was one of the students selected to attend and wrote this blog post for the School:
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Civil Service Finance Insight Day at Whitehall on 7th March. I was accompanied by 7 others including Katie from the School of Economics and Gemma from the Careers and Employability Service. We boarded the slow train to London and it felt like it took forever but I thought it was a good icebreaking session as it gave me a chance to speak to other students from the School of Economics who were participating in the Insight Day. Upon arriving in London, we started making our way to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). We met Abigail, a Civil Servant working in the FCO who was also our ‘tour guide’ for the day. Abigail then showed us around the FCO building including a 400 year old fireplace! It is a very historic building and the architecture is absolutely amazing. Abigail showed us 10 Downing Street from the FCO building as well. Nope! I did not see the Prime Minister but that is probably the closest I would ever get to that place! We had a small presentation made by Abigail. She explained more about what FCO does which includes maintaining the British embassies around the world and the complex system of getting funding approved. It is obviously very important to channel public funds into the right avenues because as Civil Servants, they are liable to so many different economic agents. Abigail also pointed out that the Civil Service have been receiving a low response for Fast Stream applications from students in Kent.
After the presentation, we went to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) where we met Alexander. Alexander is a ‘Fast Streamer’ and he works for the HM Prison Service (HMPS). It initially sounded quite scary but they actually do amazing things because they provide welfare for the prisoners. We had a short tour around the office and Alexander later answered our individual questions. We then, headed for the Department of Business, Energy, Industrial Strategies (BEIS). We met Philippa and Emily. It was amazing meeting Emily especially because she is an alumni of Kent! Philippa described her journey through the fast stream. Although the fast stream process seemed to be very long and stressful, I personally think it is worth doing because all the three ‘fast streamers’ that I met (Alexander, Philippa, Emily) have been given so many opportunities to work independently on projects and also have had the chance to gain further qualifications while at work.
Finally, we went to the House of Commons, which I thought was the highlight of the whole day. After thorough bag checks, we entered the viewing area and watched the post Brexit EU citizenship motion being debated. It felt absolutely surreal! I would like to thank the School of Economics and Civil Service for this amazing opportunity because I learned so much about the different departments in the Civil Service within a day! As an overall, it was an amazing trip and words alone don’t do justice to the whole experience. It was a long and tiring day but it was a very memorable one.