Civil service administrative officer Job Information | National Careers Service

The work

Your main tasks at administrative officer (AO) or administrative assistant (AA) grade would be to deal with customers, update records and carry out routine clerical duties. Your day-to-day work would depend on which department or agency you worked for, but might include:

• handling enquiries from the public in person, by telephone or by letter
• updating computerised and paper-based records
• processing benefit payments
• researching information
• filing, photocopying and other administrative tasks.

With experience, you could deal with more complex enquiries or complaints, or take on more specialist work related to your department.

Hours

In a full-time job you would work around 36 hours a week, Monday to Friday. Some departments provide a service outside normal office hours so you may need to work evening and Saturday shifts in these.

Part-time work, job sharing and temporary work are all widely available.

You would be based in an open plan office, which may be open to the public.

Income

Administrative assistants start on around £12,000 a year. Administrative officers start on around £14,500 a year. With experience and good performance this can rise to between £16,000 and £20,000 a year.

Figures are intended as a guideline only.

Entry requirements

Each department and agency organises its own recruitment and sets its own entry requirements.

You do not need formal qualifications for many jobs. Instead, you would take an aptitude test to prove your ability in areas like teamwork, communication and number skills. However, some departments may ask for five GCSEs (A-C) or similar qualifications for certain jobs.

You must also meet the nationality requirement. All jobs are open to British nationals and around 75% are also open to Commonwealth citizens or European Union nationals. See the Civil Service website for more information.

• Civil Service – Nationality Requirements

Training and development

You will have several weeks of in-depth training when you start your job, and also learn on the job from experienced staff.

You may get the chance to take nationally recognised work-based qualifications relevant to your particular job, such as:

• NVQ Award, Certificate and Diploma in Business and Administration at levels 1-4
• NVQ Certificate in Customer Service at levels 1 and 2, and NVQ Diploma in Customer Service at levels 3 and 4.

The Civil Service is committed to training and you would have access to in-house training and development throughout your career.

Skills and knowledge

To be a civil service administrative officer you should have:

• good spoken and written communication skills
• the ability to work well as part of a team
• good organisational and time management skills
• accuracy and attention to detail
• respect for confidential information
• basic computer skills
• the ability to follow set procedures.

More information

There aren't any central telephone number for information - see the Civil Service website for contacts for individual departments.

Careers in Operational Delivery - helps you to explore the different career pathways you would need to follow to get to specific job roles within Operational Delivery.

Opportunities

The Civil Service employs around half a million people, making it one of the country’s largest employers. Jobs may be advertised in the local and national press, Jobcentre Plus and on civil service websites.

A clear promotion structure is in place. You would usually be promoted from administrative officer to executive officer (junior manager). The government extended the temporary recruitment freeze for the Civil Service that was put in place in May 2010. Restrictions on filling empty posts, originally set to end with the 2010/11 financial year, will continue subject to an ongoing review, potentially lasting until the end of the spending review period in 2015.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) detailed the government's four-year spending review, published in October 2010, estimating that public-sector job losses will be approximately 330,000. The Civil Service accounts for around a tenth of the overall public sector workforce.

At the Emergency Budget, the Government announced a two-year pay freeze for public sector workforces, from 2011-12, for those earning above the full-time equivalent of £21,000 per annum. Those earning the full-time equivalent of £21,000 or less will receive at least £250 in each of these years. Civil servants who did not have a pay deal in place for 2010-11 at the time of the Emergency Budget, entered the pay freeze in 2010-11 and will also exit it in advance of other workforces.

Job profiles are based on the latest information supplied to us by industry bodies, such as Sector Skills Councils. Please be aware that with the introduction of the Qualifications and Credit Framework there has been, and will continue to be, changes to vocational qualifications. For more information, please check with industry bodies directly.

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