The Visa Civil Service Challenge was set by Sir Gus O ‘Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service and the winner announced at the Civil Service Live 2009 event which was held this week at London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre.
He called on four teams of quick thinking civil servants to see how many companies they could sign up to the National Apprenticeship Scheme in a day. The final total was a brilliant 64.
The teams, made up of civil servants from across the country who had never met each other before, were sent to London, Plymouth, Nottingham and Liverpool to be met by a 16-18 year old apprentice with an iPhone message from Sir Gus.
The Cabinet Secretary told the teams their assignment was to organise an event to promote apprenticeships. Their work was recorded and the film shown on the Civil Service Live website so civil servants from across the country could vote for their favourite team. Once the votes were counted the final decision was made by a panel of judges chaired by Sir Gus and including the first Apprentice winner Tim Campbell.
The winning Liverpool team were made up of Lizzie Goldsack from the Department for Work and Pensions, Alison Ridley from HM Revenue and Customs, Mohammed Pandor from the Department of Health and Keri Jones from the Office of National Statistics.
They recruited an amazing 28 companies to the National Apprenticeship scheme by using original thinking and innovative approaches. These included targeting the Muslim business community in the city and highlighting the advantages of the scheme to all of the businesses they encountered while planning their event, making sure no opportunities were missed.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell said:
“All of the teams did a great job getting 64 companies to sign up to the apprenticeship programme. It’s an amazing achievement and highlights the talent we’ve got in the Civil Service.
“The skill and commitment shown mirrors the hard work being done by civil servants across the country. Whether it’s helping people and businesses to deal with the current economic environment or delivering and designing health and education policies which reflect the diversity of our society, civil servants are giving people the help they need.
“The innovation and determination shown by the Liverpool team are hallmarks of the modern, fast-paced Civil Service. It was great to see them coming up with fresh ideas and novel solutions to achieve their goals.“
Tim Campbell, the first winner of the apprentice and Cabinet Office Social Enterprise Ambassador, said:
“I am really impressed with the way all the teams rose to the challenge and showed real initiative in getting local businesses on board with the national apprenticeship programme.
“This is a great example of innovation in the Civil Service, with frontline staff coming up with imaginative ways of providing help to people up and down the country.”
The leader of the winning team Keri Jones said:
"We felt that if we got just one pledge then it would be worth it as it would make a real difference.
"This is a fantastic example of what the civil service can do. By putting people from different government departments together we can achieve something really positive - it was a challenge but we and the teams delivered."
