Embrace Equity - Working as a Civil Servant for the MOD

Hi I’m Sam and I joined the Civil Service as an admin assistant straight from school at the age of 16 with GCSEs but no A levels or Degree, on an age and gender-based salary. Naively, I wasn’t bothered about that, I was happy to have what was then, a summer job.

27 years forward, I am still working as a Civil Servant for the MOD. In my current role as an HR professional, supporting the 8,000 Civil Servants who enable the British Army to defend the Nation, I often reflect on my Civil Service career experiences to date, not only as part of my own personal development, but as part of the HR support, I provide to our talented people and the managers I come across in my daily activities.

I had absolutely no idea of the potential I had as a 16-year-old, nor the opportunities that the Civil Service or MOD truly had to offer. As a non-graduate at that time, I could have faced limitations to my career, but ultimately that has not been the case. Thanks to the support and sponsorship of Civil Service & Armed Forces teams over the years, I have had access to exciting and challenging roles, including a 6-month deployment to Iraq as a policy advisor in 2007 supporting the Army on the front line. I have also worked in many other roles across the MOD, including fascinating policy and crisis management postings at the Permanent Joint Headquarters, Northwood and MOD Head Office, London. Importantly, I have also benefited from investment in my personal development which has enabled me to become the HR professional I am today.

If I was advising the same Sam aged 16 as an HR professional today, there would be no discussion around limitations because of her education and no age or gender-based salary. This would be a discussion about the catalogue of diverse, equitable and inclusive opportunities across the Civil Service & MOD that would enable her to realise her potential and pursue the career she wanted to have.  #EmbraceEquity