Personal Assistant Central Business Support Team (Business Admin (Level 3) Apprenticeship)

Job summary

At the Department for Education (DFE), we are striving for world-class education, training and care for everyone whatever their background. Our ambition is to have a more productive economy, giving everyone the chance to reach their potential and live a more fulfilled life.

We work in multi-disciplinary teams using Agile methods to innovate and radically improve services that:

• Raise education standards and provide the best start in life for children.
• Support disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people.
• Drive economic growth.

Our work and set up is truly end-to-end. We work closely with Ministers and our users on the design of our programmes and policies, through to successful implementation, through our research and analysis, finance and commercial, communications, technical design and programme management.

Working in Private Office is really rewarding and a fun place to work, but you will need to be resilient to the challenges that arise. To be successful, you must be able to build networks across all levels and communicate effectively in writing and verbally. You will be empowered to make decisions and so must demonstrate excellent judgement in the face of uncertainty, competing views and demands. This is an exciting and stretching role with significant developmental opportunities.

The Personal Assistant is responsible for complex diary management, meeting coordination, travel arrangements, correspondence management, document preparation, stakeholder engagement, and supporting the delivery of key business activities. The role also acts as a central point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, helping to maintain effective communication and operational continuity.

Job description

Work as part of a central Business Support Team, providing flexible support and cover for colleagues during periods of absence, peak workloads, or business priorities. Build strong relationships across the team to ensure continuity of support to senior leaders and maintain a high-quality service, adapting quickly to changing demands and priorities.

You will anticipate and solve problems before they arise and liaise frequently with senior colleagues and external stakeholders. The varied role will include: electronic diary and email management, drafting correspondence, and administrative support.

You will be an excellent communicator with strong organisational skills. You will need to juggle a busy and rapidly changing schedule, staying one step ahead in thinking about the needs and commitments of the Deputy Directors.

Work as part of a central Business Support Team, providing flexible support and cover for colleagues during periods of absence, peak workloads, or business priorities. Build strong relationships across the team to ensure continuity of support to senior leaders and maintain a high-quality service, adapting quickly to changing demands and priorities.

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Manage Director/Deputy Director's diary on a day-to-day basis and organise meetings as requested. Strategic management of diaries to identify busy periods in the business cycle and monitor their inbox(s) for diary-related emails. Understand the objectives of meetings and prioritise against conflicting requirements.
• Handle sensitive information in a confidential manner and manage the Director / Deputy Director's inbox to prioritise work effectively.
• Work with leads across the finance function to coordinate ministerial correspondence, ensuring the necessary approvals have been completed and that the statutory deadlines are met.
• Secretariat to Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and/or board meetings as required, maintain a forward plan of agenda items, draft agendas, commission papers and circulate in good time. Attend the meetings, drafting accurate minutes and actions, track progress against actions. Prepare meeting papers for the Director / Deputy Director, ensure they have all information required for all meetings in their preferred format. Source briefing for meetings where required.
• Work cohesively and in a joined-up way with the PA network, with other PAs in the Business Support Team and more widely with other PAs across the department. Provide high quality customer service in line with departmental expectation. Ensure that all information for customers is accurate, timely, clear and easy to understand and that all dealings with customers are professional positive and respectful.
• Take active part in the Business Support Team and take responsibility of group wide activities. Support the improvement of internal procedures and systems, identifying opportunities for innovation and continuous improvement.
• Managing busy diaries, prioritising and organising the SLTs time to ensure they meet their objectives. You will attend and provide secretariat support to board / committee meetings as required, being responsible for the forward look, minutes and action recording.
• Handling sensitive information within the Director / Deputy Directors inboxes in a confidential manner. You will coordinate responses to ministerial correspondence, ensuring that the request is dealt with appropriately, with the relevant approvals by the statutory deadlines.
• Actively take part in activities across the function, supporting opportunities for innovation and continuous improvement.

Working Pattern

We welcome applications from candidates seeking part time or compressed working pattern. However, due to the nature of the work and the shift coverage required, the minimum number of contracted hours for this role is 30 hours per week over a 4 day period.

This role includes completion of the Business Administrator Apprenticeship (Level 3). Please check the eligibility requirements below using the apprenticeship standard: (Business Administrator/ Skills England). This apprenticeship will take twelve to eighteen months to complete (pro rata for part time) and will equip you with the opportunity to develop and make the most of your skills. You will be expected to maintain the commitment required to complete your training.

Please check the eligibility requirements below using the apprenticeship standard: (Business Administrator/ Skills England)

• You must have lived in the UK for 3 years prior to apprenticeship start date and not be undertaking another apprenticeship at the same time.
• You must not already have a substantial amount of the skills and knowledge that is covered in the contents of the apprenticeship standard.
• You must not have already worked in a similar role, or your previous learning, and/or work experience covers the contents (Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours) of the apprenticeship standard.

Please do not apply if:

• You already have all the skills and knowledge that is covered in the contents of the apprenticeship standard.
• You have already worked in a similar role, or your previous learning, and/or work experience covers the contents (Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours) of the apprenticeship standard.
• You have a degree (or equivalent) as an Business Administrator.

Person specification

Essential criteria

The below criteria are essential and will be assessed at application stage.

• Demonstrate the ability to manage complex and demanding diaries, prioritise competing requests, coordinate meetings, and ensure efficient use of senior leaders' time, maintaining accurate records, and delivering high-quality administrative support in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to track, manage and prioritise multiple competing demands in a fast-moving environment.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to summarise complex issues clearly and tailor messages for different audiences.
• Ability to build and maintain strong working relationships, foster collaboration across teams and support effective join-up.
• Sound judgement, with the confidence to make decisions, identify emerging issues and know when to escalate risks or concerns.
• Flexible and proactive team-working skills, with the ability to support colleagues and respond effectively to urgent priorities.
• Excellent IT skills with experience using Microsoft 365 collaboration tools such as MS Teams, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, with a proactive approach to improving ways of working and managing sensitive information appropriately.

Desirable criteria

• Ability to maintain an understanding of emerging issues within your portfolio of work.

Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview, in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,581, Department for Education contributes £9,438 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Things you need to know

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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

To apply for this role, please select 'Apply Now' at the top or bottom of this advert. CV details need to be included in the template within the application form; attached or emailed CVs will not be considered.

Stage 1: Application

At sift stage, you will be assessed on your Experience in line with the Essential Criteria listed in the person specification section of the job advert.

To apply for this role, please provide:

1. A ShortCV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.
2. Your Statement of Suitability – In no more than 750 words, provide examples of how your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the essential criteria. This is not intended to be a cover letter, instead work through each essential criteria in turn. You may wish to follow the STAR technique to help focus your examples. The key things we are looking for are what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was.

To confirm, the maximum word count for the statement of suitability is 750 words. Please adhere to this limit as anything over 750 words will not be taken into account.

The CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the essential criteria detailed in the advert.

Should there be a high volume of applicants, candidates will be sifted using the first three (3) essential skills.

If candidates require reasonable adjustments during the application process, please allow sufficient time (at least 5 working days prior to the closing date) to allow us to review and progress your application to the next stage of the process.

Please note that there is no candidate support available from Friday 5pm until Monday 9am.

Please note, CV details must be contained within the template on the application form. Any CV or Statement of Suitability that has been emailed to our team will not be considered.

Once you have submitted your application it cannot be amended; only submit your application when you have completely finished, answered all the relevant questions and reviewed the information entered.

Application sifting will take place w/c 28 September 2026 onwards. Please note these dates are subject to change.

If you are successful at application sift stage, your application will be progressed onto Stage 2 part of the Selection process.

Stage 2: Interview

The interview will last approximately 60 minutes. You will be asked questions on the Behaviours listed above to determine your level of experience in these areas. Questions will typically ask for a brief and broad overview of your experience relevant to a criteria (e.g. tell us about your experience delivering policy projects) and/or a specific example (e.g. tell us about a time when you….). We may also ask you some follow-up questions.

We will also ask you Strengths based questions

Behaviours are the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job. We want to get an understanding of the actions and activities that you have done (or would do) that result in effective performance.

Strengths are a way for Hiring Managers to understand what motivates you and what you enjoy doing, which helps the panel to understand your areas of strength. Evidence shows that people do better work when a job aligns well with what they enjoy and find motivating. We don’t advertise which strengths we are going to assess you on as we want to be able to assess your first, natural response to the questions.

Interviews will take place mid to end of October 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Interviews will be held over video conferencing using MS Teams. If you are invited to interview, please ensure that you have access to this software and that you have your video turned on. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We receive many applications, and unfortunately we’re not able to provide feedback for candidates who aren’t shortlisted. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

All communications will be electronic therefore it is vitally important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.

Important Information

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.

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

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 circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

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

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.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 05_2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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 theCivil 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.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 : Katie Chapman
• Email : Katie.chapman@education.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk

Further information

The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via CentralRecruitment.Operations@education.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages

Attachments

DFE Terms & Conditions - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 215kB)Reasonable Adjustments guide 05_2025 - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 723kB)OGD Transfer Supplementary information - accessible version (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 327kB)Success Profiles Behaviours Opens in new window (pdf, 1043kB)