Funding Development Manager Review

The development of funding within the education sector. Providing answers for enquires about funding and T-Level courses from educational institutions. Writing or updating funding guidance for the Department for Education's website. Leading on the project of identifying and then recovering unspent allocations from the 16 to 19 tuition fund.

I've developed my IT skills particularly on excel as my role requires the use of numerous spreadsheets with multiple formulae and Vlookups in them. I've also gained a greater insight about tuition funding regulations as I've led the project on the recovery of unspent allocations from that fund.

Whilst the classroom sessions were delivered well, it felt you that you were being educated on how to pass an exam rather than teaching you skills you'd need to use in your job. The exam as well was entirely focussed on knowledge that I'll never need or use in my job.

The classroom sessions took place on a regular basis and were well delivered, however the invites to these sessions were often not sent until right before the session was due to take place. This resulted in having to cancel or move meetings and other work activities to attend the classroom session.

I was usually given a dedicated day each week to carry out my apprenticeship work, which my manager always stuck with, sometimes work related issues cropped up which meant I couldn't carry out apprenticeship work that week, but I was given the time later on to catch up with the time. I was also given extra time for exam preparation.

Revision sessions provided before the exam to help prepare for it. They also provided sessions on improving my exam techniques and supplied useful mock exam questions. When writing case studies for the the course they could take quite some time to be marked, so I was never quite sure where I was with which case studies I still had to do.

I didn't find the course helpful at all for my job. It seemed geared towards giving you the knowledge to pass an exam but didn't provide me with anything which I would use on a day to day basis in my job, even when managing a project.

There are some social activities such as national sports day but these are limited and not very advertised so you have to specifically look for it and then you won't know who else is going. Within my home office there seems to be no social events though. There are a few away days each year to network with other people but these are also limited.

Yes

It's a stable secure job with good terms and conditions with the bonus of flexi time and additional leave after a certain length of service. It also has acceptable rate of pay. There are plenty of opportunities for promotion and development and moving between roles. In my role you can work in a way that suits you best and management isn't too hands on.

Look for roles which you want and which suit your skills rather than applying for any role within the civil service, including if you're looking for promotion. The application forms and interviews will be based around competency examples, so look to develop these a view of being able to answer follow up questions based on the examples you've used.