The "Fast Stream" is the accelerated development programme from the Civil Service for graduates. Those who join the Fast Stream are guaranteed a series of job placements designed to prepare them for senior managerial positions within the organisation. Fast Streamers move regularly between projects and sections within their departments; they take up postings in other departments and agencies; and they are regularly seconded to Europe, the USA and also companies.
The Civil Service require a minimum of a 2:2 in any degree discipline from graduate applicants. Generally you must also be a UK National. The Civil Service look for particular competencies from graduate applicants. Graduates must be: results oriented; decisive; good at relationship building; good at making an impact; professional and have flexible thinking.
Both the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development have said that they are looking for people who have got a lot more than the school to college to university standard background. The Department for International Development are looking for people with operational experience in particular. Experience living/working in a developing country, multiple language skills and specific international economic knowledge would be useful for applicants to have.
When deciding which department to apply to, think about which policy area interests you the most rather than the department of state itself. Some departments may sound more interesting or exciting than others, but it is most important for you to be happy about the policy area you will be working on, than anything else.
The Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and the Treasury are all departments where overall strategy is generally quite consistent each year. If you look at some of the other departments at the Civil Service, you will find that several policy areas are still evolving. Working in these areas may be more exciting and stimulating, and can provide you with more scope to make decisions that directly effect policy.
Almost every candidate favours these departments when applying to the Civil Service. Many people do not get placed in these departments though, commonly because few people understand what working for them really entails or what skills these departments are looking for.
Getting into the Foreign Office and Department for International Development is even more competitive than just getting on the Fast Stream (where just one in one hundred applicants get the job) so it is very important for applicants to do their research. Applicants must also be highly skilled and have a very good academic record.
The process by which the Civil Service place graduates in departments is highly complicated. It is a hard process to manage, which is why candidates may not always end up in the department they have applied to.
Each year HR departments from the ministries submit the number of fast stream vacancies that they anticipate for the coming year, and inform the Cabinet Office. As and when these vacancies come through, the Cabinet Office try to match them up with applicants.
For the graduate fast stream, you can only defer under certain circustances: to take part in the Teach First programme, to complete a qualification or course, or due to specific extenuating personal reasons.
As you progress through the Fast Stream programme, there will be a number of opportunities to take secondments within the Treasury and the Cabinet Office at the Civil Service.
Job switching and changing departments within the civil service is actively encouraged because bringing new knowledge and new ideas to some policy areas is very useful. Taking a secondment in another department also helps individuals to understand other parts of the Civil Service better, which is useful throughout their career.
You will also be actively encouraged to take secondments outside of Whitehall too. Some people at the Civil Service think that a secondment in a local authority should be compulsory for anyone seeking promotion into the senior Civil Service. This is because a lack of knowledge of how local government works has been one of the biggest barriers to delivery over the past ten years.
Departments vary in terms of the training they provide or want you to follow. This really depends on the culture of your HR people. In some departments it is up to the individual fast streamer to make the business case for specific training (such as an MA) and to convince the department to fund this from their training allowance.
Some departments offer specific training courses, such as "An Introduction to Parliament, Government and the Civil Service".
One of the biggest complaints from people within industry is that the Civil Service is not consistent and suffers from a lack of joined up thinking between departments (and even within departments). This is one of the reasons why there has been a concerted push across various departments for more co-ordinated and aligned working in recent months.
Now see:
The application and interview process for Civil Service Fast Stream graduate jobs is as follows:
* Online application
* Numerical and Verbal reasoning on-line [[aptitude tests]]
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==Interview process==
The interview process for Civil Service Fast Stream graduate jobs is a three stage process:
* '''Computer based tests'''
** [[Aptitude tests]]
** [[E-tray exercise]]
** Email response exercise
* Stage two
{{Assistance_Required}}
* '''Assessment day'''
** [[Group exercise]]
** Written exercises
** [[general interview advice|Interview]] / [[competency based interview|competency interview]]
** Briefing exercise
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===Stage one - Computer based tests===
There are three sections to the first stage of the Civil Service Fast Stream assessment process. There are no interviews at this stage.
* [[Numerical reasoning]] and [[verbal reasoning]] [[aptitude tests]]
* [[E-tray exercise]]
* Email response exercise
'''Aptitude tests'''
To confirm that you took the pre-assessment online tests, you will be asked to repeat the numerical and verbal reasoning tests that you have previously completed online.
{{Numerical Test Book}}
'''E-tray exercise'''
The Civil Service Fast Stream E-tray exercise lasts approximately one hour and is entirely computer based.
For the first fifteen minutes of this exercise you are given a set of documents to read. These documents may be about a new youth rehabilitation centre.
You will then have 45 minutes to answer approximately 25 emails, which will constantly appear in your in-box. You will be able to choose your response from a range of multiple choice answers, selecting which action out of four would be the most appropriate and which would be the least. Portions of this exercise may be quite ambiguous.
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'''Email response exercise'''
This last section will last an hour. You will be given two questions from a line manager and these will follow on from the [[E-tray exercise]].
The first question will ask you to prepare your line manager for an upcoming meeting with the potential questions they might face and also, how they could be answered.
The second question will ask you to think of imaginative and radical solutions to the problems associated with the E-tray proposal (i.e. the rehab centre).
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Source: [http://www.whatwilltheyask.co.uk/Civil-service/civilservice2.htm]
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===Stage two===
'''Assistance Required!'''
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===Stage three - Assessment day===
The third stage of the Civil Service Fast Stream interview process is a full day [[assessment day|assessment centre]].
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'''Group exercise'''
The first exercise (although the order of events changes for different groups) was a [[group exercise]]. The group exercise starts with 30 minutes of preparation, during which you are told you represent a particular department of the Civil Service and given some literature regarding a fictional issue. Your task will be to represent your department's point of view, and make the case for it.
The actual exercise lasts approximately 45 minutes, and you have to make a decision on which factors you think are the most important and which of four projects will be the best solution to the problem. In the last 10 minutes your assessors will stop you and tell you that you have to present your case to a minister and think of responses to potential problems that may be raised over the selected solution.
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'''Written exercise'''
There are two written exercises during the [[assessment day]]. One is quite short and only lasts 30 minutes, in which you have to judge a situation and make comments upon it.
The next written exercise lasts for approximately one and a half hours and involves a lot of reading material which includes peoples' views and statistics concerning a set of proposals. It is your job to weigh up the proposals and make a decision based on the information and stated goals. There is no right answer to this exercise. You are being assessed on how you make your case.
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'''Lunch'''
Candidates will have lunch (which is apparently rather tasty) and an opportunity to talk freely with other candidates and quite possibly Civil Service graduate employees currently on the Fast Track scheme.
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'''Interview'''
The interview lasts approximately 45 - 60 minutes and is of general interview format. It consists of the usual general interview questions and [[competency based questions]].
'''Competencies'''
Employees of the Civil Service must be able to analyse and evaluate huge amounts of information, in order to prepare documents such as briefs for ministers. They must have excellent [[communication]] skills, so that they may write drafts of government White Papers and excellent [[teamwork|teamworking]] skills because much of the work they do will be team based. It is also important that they exhibit [[leadership]] qualities, to allow them to make key decisions and persuade other people of their point of view
At interview, candidates must demonstrate that they fulfil these key [[competencies]] that the Civil Service require of their employees. These are generally: '''[[Teamwork]]''', '''[[Leadership]]''', being able to '''analyse''' information, being able to '''plan''' effectively, being able to '''compile information''' and draft documents, and '''[[Decision making]]'''.
Use examples from your academic, working and extracurricular experiences to answer any questions you may be asked. For example, talking about how you successfully argued on a topic for a debating society at a university competition shows evidence of [[teamwork]] and co-operation, [[leadership]] and persuasiveness, and that you have successfully understood, analysed and re-drafted information.
Examples of specific questions candidates have been asked in the past include:
* When have you worked under pressure?
* Give me an example of when you have worked under pressure?
* How did you cope with this pressure?
* How do you motivate yourself at work?
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'''Briefing exercise'''
The briefing exercise is the final part of the assessment day. This starts with candidates being given a list of three options of fictional solutions to a problem (which may involve new local/national transport schemes).
You are given very little information concerning the solutions and a list of criteria that the solutions should fill. You have to pick one of the solutions and then prepare a 5-10 minute [[presentation]] for 25 minutes.
In the final briefing you give the [[presentation]] and will then be asked questions regarding the merits of the scheme and how you would solve any problems that might arise. This is a thinking on your feet exercise. You cannot prepare for these questions.
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'''Self-assessment'''
Throughout the day you will have opportunities to fill out self-assessment sheets, which ask you to describe how well you feel you have done at each assessment stage. These are assessed. They're looking to see how well you identify your own development needs. Be honest and say what your shortcomings are and how you would go about addressing them.
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Source: [http://www.whatwilltheyask.co.uk/Civil-service/civilservice3.htm]
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For more information about '''graduate schemes''' offered by the '''[[civil service fast stream|Civil Service]]''' use the WikiJob [http://www.wikijob.co.uk/forum forums].