Industry placement opportunities in DWP

Introduction

This case study illustrates the opportunities for developing an industry placement programme in a large government department with more than 80,000 staff.

Who it’s for

It will be useful for anyone in the Civil Service who is involved in:

• • Championing industry placements in their organisation
  • Setting up and managing placements for the first time
  • Expanding the placement programme

What’s in the resource

The resource is in three parts:

Where industry placements started

• • What happened in the first year
  • Progression to apprenticeships
  • Outcomes

Expansion across DWP hubs

• • Commitment to growth
  • What happened in the second year
  • Process improvements
  • T Level SharePoint
  • Student evaluation form
  • Planning cycle

Future growth

• • DWP Digital
  • Other professions
  • Ambitions

 

Where industry placements started

First year

The first 12 T Level students to come on placements in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were hosted by DWP Digital. With over 5,000 staff, Digital is one of the biggest professions in DWP, providing digital services that enable millions of people to access the support they need.

Josh Bhogal is one of these students. He talks enthusiastically about his experience:

“I’ve learnt so much being in Digital Group – coding skills and working in a team – it’s the best thing I’ve ever done!”

During his placement in Leeds, Josh developed a digital jobs dashboard that could replace the paper dashboard used in job centres.

Chris Hyland, Senior Data Scientist at DWP and Josh’s mentor, is impressed by Josh’s willingness to learn and the contribution he made to the Digital team:

“Josh exceeded expectations in what he achieved in just nine weeks. He stepped up to lead this project, his prototype generated lots of valuable feedback, and we already have plans to trial it in another four sites.”

Watch this video of Josh presenting his job board in Pudsey Jobcentre.

Progression

Josh and three other students who joined the first cohort at DWP have now started an apprenticeship in software engineering, staying in the same teams as their placements. Two more have started apprenticeships in project management.  

All these are two-year fixed-term appointments under the social mobility scheme. Two have recently been converted to permanent posts following a business case approval.

Outcomes

These first placements in DWP Digital enabled DWP to create and test processes which would work well for students and the organisation.

Karen Bell, DWP’s T Level lead, says that getting the quality right is vital before building up the numbers of students on placement:

“T Levels and industry placements are a starting point for students, an opportunity for them to find full-time jobs. We’re still working through the process and learning along the way.”

 

Expansion across DWP hubs

Commitment to growth

DWP delivers digital services in England from its corporate hubs in Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.

Richard Corbridge, DWP’s Chief Digital and Information Officer, is a committed sponsor of T Levels and industry placements:

“I’m passionate about professionalisation, development, apprenticeships – and about T Level students being able to come into our organisation.”

Second year

After a successful first year with 12 students, 16 students joined placements during the second year in three of the seven corporate hubs, Blackpool, Leeds and Newcastle.

Jodie McDermott, Digital Talent Partner in DWP, explains the hub approach:

“We want to have a secure partner in each of the hub locations. Everyone does T Levels differently, so a single partnership means we can agree how the placements will work with the school or college before even starting to recruit students. It’s also a more streamlined approach that makes best use of our resources.”

DWP’s T Level lead Karen Bell explains how the programme is developing across the hubs:

“The key to building up is to get other colleagues interested. The process worked quite well last year, and it feels even better this year. We plan to use the models we’ve developed with other hubs in future, to make it easier for them.”

Alana Banks, Apprenticeships Programme Manager, agrees that it’s a work in progress to get the message out:

“We’re working closely with different teams in the department, and we are part of the Routeways Team which is responsible for the social mobility apprenticeships in DWP. We’re also developing and improving the process all the time.”

Process improvements

Improvements made during the first two years are designed to make the process easier and also to consolidate the quality of placements as the programme grows. Recent developments include:

• • T Level SharePoint with resources for different stakeholders, including line managers and students
  • Planning cycle to show when key activities should happen and support a consistent approach across hubs
  • Sharing support for students among team members
  • Evaluation form for students and line managers as a record of what’s happening in each placement

These are described below in more detail.

Other developments include:

• • Job descriptions for all placement roles
  • Three-day selection process for students with interviews on the last day
  • Centralised face-to-face development day for students to  build employability skills
  • Common induction for line managers so they work on industry placements as a team

T Level SharePoint

The screenshots below show the main menu (on the left-hand side) and the top of two pages:

• • What are T Levels?
  • Guidance for line managers

 

 

Planning Cycle

 

Sharing support

Each student is assigned a line manager or task manager, but this role may be filled by different team members at different times. This means that the responsibility to allocate work, train the student to carry it out and monitor their performance can be shared across team members depending on which tasks or projects they are working on.

As well as being supported individually by their line or task manager, students in DWP’s Business Services practice are brought together as a group at different points throughout the placement. The placement coordinator creates a composite timetable showing tasks, projects and activities planned for each student. Group activities such as job shadowing and guest sessions are then added to the timetable at appropriate times. This is done before the placements start.

DWP Digital Talent Partner Jodie McDermott explains:

“Planning ahead like this is key. Delegating line and task management responsibility and being savvy with group sessions allows the team to balance people’s roles alongside their support to students without compromising the quality of the placement.” 

Creating opportunities for fast streamers to line or task manage students as part of their development has also worked well.

Student evaluation form

The downloadable form below is inspired by evaluation tools used in other Civil Service development programmes such as Summer Internship and Fast Stream.

Performance areas used in the form mirror some of the key points in the success profiles for Civil Service behaviours – see Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours  

Performance criteria are a simplified version of what the behaviour looks like in practice, using the descriptions in the success profiles applied to Administrative and Executive Officer grades.

 

Future growth

DWP Digital

The single partnership approach pioneered by DWP Digital should continue to provide a streamlined process that supports expansion, as Digital Talent Partner Jodie McDermott explains:

“My job is to speak with colleges and schools in the other DWP hub locations and agree potential partners for each one, so we can start to attract students for our third cohort starting next September. I’d like to say we can increase the number of students on placement to 20 in the third year.”

Other professions

The Civil Service has 19 different professions. Most of the professions in DWP are represented in the seven English hubs. Some operational delivery staff are also located in hubs, although most are employed in Jobcentres across the country.

As T Level lead for DWP, Karen Bell is clear about the purpose of expanding industry placements throughout the whole of the hub network:

“We need these students to become involved with the Civil Service at an early age, to know who we are and what we can offer them.”

Digital was an obvious place to start, because of the number of DWP staff working in the profession and the constant need for new recruits with specialist skills. Having a highly supportive director is also a factor:

“We wouldn’t be where we are now without the interest from Digital and the strong messages going out from senior leaders.”

While there is still a great opportunity for Digital teams in all the hubs to offer placements to more students, the time is right for other professions in DWP to get involved.

Placements are currently being planned for students studying T Levels in Management and administration and Legal, finance and accounting. But with over 20 T Level subjects available and more coming on stream in 2025, there is plenty of scope across every profession.

Ambitions

DWP’s ambition to be ‘a truly flexible, inclusive, and continuously learning organisation’[1] is starting to be fulfilled in its principled and pragmatic approach to offering opportunities to young people.

T Level industry placements are now starting to take their place alongside other early career programmes such as internships and work experience. This year, for the first time, university placement students and T-Level students will come together to receive development training, enabling them to network and learn from each other. There are plans to include other schemes, such as Going Forward into Employment, in this integrated approach as well.

The experience of T Level students is also being showcased to other areas of the organisation, through events such as Professions at Work Week and Business Conferences.  

Emily Hobbs, Director of Capability, Learning and Talent in DWP’s People and Capability Group, believes that the commitment to T Levels and industry placement can and should extend right across the organisation: 

“As an employer we are always keen to secure the best talent, now and for the future, ensuring we have a strong skills and talent pipeline. T Levels are a fantastic learning opportunity for students and provide an alternative route to gaining qualifications grounded in hands-on experience, but they also connect employers to future talent helping us make the right investment.”

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[1] https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/dwp-our-culture/