Education. Health. Employment. Defence. Transport. Climate change. International development. These are just some of the areas where graduates on the Civil Service Fast Stream get to put their ideas into practice, as they work on issues that affect the entire country and beyond.
The Civil Service Fast Stream is an accelerated graduate development programme aimed at people who have the potential to become the Civil Service leaders of tomorrow. As such, Fast Streamers are given considerable responsibility from the outset, challenged, and are moved regularly between postings to gain a wide range of experiences and skills.
They are exposed to three distinct but complementary professional areas: policy delivery, operational delivery and corporate services. These areas give them a wide understanding of how government delivers public services. As part of their development, graduates also enjoy a mixture of on-the-job training and formal courses, as well as receiving ongoing feedback on their performance.
So what qualities are needed to make it to the top? Lucidity, confidence, innovation and decisiveness are all important, as is an analytical and open-minded approach. Graduates must have a minimum 2:2 in any discipline.
Above all, they need to be able to develop relationships and deliver results, and be excited by the idea of making a real and positive impact across many different areas of society.
Other opportunities include specialist schemes for economists, statisticians, technology in business and HR.