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Job Summary

Do you want a career where you can make a real difference? Do you want to work at the forefront of current policy making decisions? Do you want to have an impact on the UK and beyond? If yes, then a career at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) could be for you.

Here at DESNZ we are delivering our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower, with clean electricity by 2030 and accelerating the UK’s journey to net zero.

Our work is helping ensure clean energy for all, keep bills down and seize the opportunities to lead the world in new green industries, taking back control of our energy with Great British Energy and encouraging greater energy efficiency across the UK. The work of the department has never been more timely or relevant, and by joining us you will be part of making that difference.

Our work is varied, interesting and most importantly it's impactful. Our DESNZ Values are interwoven into everything we do; we are bold, we are collaborative, we are inclusive, and we learn. As a department we are committed to these values to build a culture where everyone can thrive

We offer great working benefits including a world-class pension, flexible working options and a career where your learning and development is taken seriously. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Find Out More

We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application and interview process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://forms.office.com/e/pqUhdr3L72

You can also follow our LinkedIn Careers Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/desnz-careers/

Job Description

Would you like to learn more about energy?

The Energy Statistics team in DESNZ is offering exciting opportunities for university students completing a UK undergraduate degree with placement year. Never before has energy and climate change been more in the public light and at the centre of government policy. As part of the Energy Statistics team, you will work with hardworking statisticians providing data and evidence on energy to support government policy making and monitoring. We are also responsible for meeting international data reporting requirements, supporting Departmental work to advise and brief Ministers and senior officials, and responding to parliamentary questions and public correspondence about energy information.

This role is only open to undergraduate students for whom this placement forms part of their degree course, e.g., students currently in the second year of a three-year course with a placement year.

Person specification

We will place successful candidates in a team which covers one of the areas below:

  • Analysing electricity generation data for regular publications relating to the security of electricity supply and developing analysis to further the inclusion of renewable generation types.
  • Collecting and analysing data from major oil stakeholders, with a focus on helping manage the UK’s emergency oil stockholding system and providing policymakers with data and analysis to support evidence-based decision making.
  • Collecting, analysing and interpreting data on the price of fuel & energy in the United Kingdom, including prices of road fuels, prices paid by industry and domestic energy bills.
  • Analysing households who are living in fuel poverty to identify the most vulnerable households living in inefficient homes, enabling resources to be targeted to support them.


Placement students are also given the opportunity to write and contribute to published articles in these areas of work, and to contribute to development of code-based production systems.

Further information on these statistics can be found on the team’s webpage using this link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-energy-security-and-net-zero/about/statistics

Please let us know if you have an interest in one of the areas above. There are no guarantees that students are placed according to their area of interest, however, we will certainly take this into consideration.

Please note that the DESNZ Energy Statistics team is based in primarily London, with a small number of the team based in regional offices. Any successful applicants may be managed remotely using Teams video calls and e-mails. Successful applicants based in Salford will travel on occasion to London for team meetings.

Essential Criteria

  • Sound analytical skills, along with a grasp of descriptive and inferential statistics
  • Strong written skills, with ability to explain numerical outputs in comprehensive written form
  • Interpersonal and team working skills
  • An ability to apply themselves to solving problems
  • An ability to work accurately without the need for supervision on some projects
  • Demonstrate strong initiative to learn and use new skills rapidly to complete a project or task
  • An interest in learning to run and build analytical processes in software packages such as SQL and Python .
  • Applicant must be an undergraduate student for whom this placement forms part of their degree course, e.g., students currently in the second year of a three-year course with a placement year, or currently in the third year of a four-year course with a placement year.


Desirable Criteria

  • Experience writing code to manipulate data and/or carry out statistical analysis using SQL/Python /R
  • The posts involve working with data so are typically suited to undergraduates studying for degrees with an analytical component such as maths, engineering, economics, geography, psychology, etc.


Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Delivering at Pace
  • Working Together


Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

  • Statistics


Benefits

Alongside your salary of £25,515, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £7,391 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

  • A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
  • Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
  • A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
  • An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
  • Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
  • A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.


Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home-based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV, a number of behavioural statements and a technical skills example.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Applications will be sifted on behavioural statements, CV and any technical skills required.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the lead technical skill (Statistics).

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will consist of behaviour and technical questions.

Interviewees will be asked to deliver a written exercise at interview, further details will be provided nearer the time.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants' section.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location-based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e., working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.

DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

  • UK nationals
  • nationals of the Republic of Ireland
  • nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
  • individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
  • Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service


Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

  • Name : Chris Michaels
  • Email : chris.michaels@energysecurity.gov.uk


Recruitment team

  • Email : desnzresourcing.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk


Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance DESNZrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints