Routes into Government Analysis

The Analysis Function (AF) have a range of methods to bring people into analytical roles across the Civil Service. Departments can run their own recruitment campaigns for analysts, but there are 5 main routes that are managed independently by the analytical professions.

The flowchart gives an overview of the profession-led recruitment routes available. Read more detailed information about recruitment routes within professions.

Mainstream recruitment

Many analytical professions run cross-government campaigns at various times of the year.

Departmental Heads of Profession can bid to receive analysts brought in through these campaigns. The frequency of these recruitment campaigns and the grade of the roles available will vary depending on the profession.

Apprenticeships

There are several apprenticeship opportunities available across the AF. The recruitment campaigns for degree level apprenticeships start in September.

Fast Stream

There are Fast Stream programmes for:

• Economists
• Statisticians
• Social Researchers
• Operational Researchers

Recruitment campaigns for Fast Stream start in September. Find out more about the Fast Stream.

Loans and secondments

There are many loan and secondment opportunities available across the AF.

Recruitment for these opportunities usually takes place annually.

Find out more about loans and and secondments.

Student placements

There are several student placement opportunities available across the AF.

Recruitment for a one year student placement typically launches in September, but there are also opportunities to bid for students at other times of the year. This includes bids for 6 to 12 week summer student placements.

Find out more about student placements.

Other recruitment opportunities

Departments also have the option to run recruitment campaigns outside of these profession led routes. This could be through:

• a profession agnostic approach to recruit Government Analysts who are not accredited to a profession
• an all-profession route to recruit a specific analyst who is accredited to the Government Economic Service (GES), the Government Operational Research Service (GORS), the Government Statistician Group (GSG), or Government Social Research (GSR) profession

You can find more information about these processes in the process map, which is available upon request. You can ask for a process map by emailing the AF Capability team at Analysis.Function@gov.uk

See current job opportunities.

Recruiting analysts

If your department wishes to recruit analysts, the Heads of Profession and their support teams, where applicable, should be involved in providing professional assurance at recruitment and selection stage for specific roles. This is because the professions have their own competency and technical frameworks, and members must meet professional standards.

Each analytical profession has different requirements and procedures for recruitment and promotion. Recruitment activity can be coordinated by analytical professions, but some departments may choose to recruit Government Analysts outside of this route through either:

• all-profession recruitment, using the requirements across the analytical professions of the Government Statistical Service (GSS), GSR, GES, and GORS
• profession agnostic recruitment, through running a multidisciplinary campaign

The AF recommends that analytical posts should be open to all analysts unless there is a specific need for a deep technical expert, or a significant proportion of the job requires specific professional skills and competencies.

You can ask for a process map for running profession agnostic and cross-profession recruitment by emailing the AF Capability team at Analysis.Function@gov.uk.

Existing methods of recruitment

Many analytical professions co-ordinate recruitment campaigns at various times of year. These mainstream campaigns, led by the profession support teams, ensure recruitment:

• is done to a high standard
• follows the accreditation or “badging” criteria, where needed

There can be a cost to departments for using mainstream recruitment campaigns, but it is an effective way for departments to access analysts each year and ensure they are accredited to a particular analytical profession. There will be differences in grades, frequency of recruitment, and costs per hire depending on the profession.

Departmental HR teams should speak to Departmental Heads of Profession and the relevant profession team to ensure that they are included as part of this method of recruitment. If you are unsure of who your departmental Head of Profession is, please contact the relevant profession support team and they will be able to help you.

There is a toolkit that outlines approaches for accrediting Government Analysts to analytical professions using Badging Boards. You can request a copy of the toolkit by emailing the AF Capability team at Analysis.Function@gov.uk.