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Departmental Recruitment

Volume 468: debated on Monday 26 November 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people aged (a) 30 to 39, (b) 40 to 49, (c) 50 to 59 and (d) 60 to 69 years have (i) applied for jobs, (ii) received interviews and (iii) gained (A) temporary and (B) permanent jobs in his Department in 2007. (165106)

Recruitment in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is split into two specific areas—volume recruitment (jobs in generalist grades, such as administrative assistant, administrative officer and operational officer); specialist recruitment (jobs which require specific skills or expertise such as researchers, legal advisers, accountants). This area also includes temporary recruitment (short-term contracts for work on specific projects). Figures on those recruited into each area are provided as follows:

Volume recruitment

Age band

Applied

Interviewed

Temporary Employment

Permanent Employment

Al Administrative Assistants

30-39

386

52

0

24

40-49

101

29

0

8

50-59

86

16

0

6

60-69

7

0

0

0

A2 Administrative Officers

30-39

262

21

0

10

40-49

131

4

0

2

50-59

29

2

0

0

60-69

0

0

0

0

B3 Operational Officers

30-39

1,551

57

0

13

40-49

655

6

0

5

50-59

132

1

0

0

60-69

12

0

0

0

Note:

Figures include applications/interviews from campaigns spanning 2006-07.

Specialist Recruitment

Age band

Interviewed

Temporary employment

Permanent employment

30-39

29

1

2

40-49

29

13

8

50-59

17

0

3

60-69

3

14

0

70+

n/a

4

0

Notes:

1. For specialist recruitment campaigns, data are currently only available from interview or assessment onwards.

2. For fixed term contracts of less than one year's duration, appointees are not required to go through a full application and interview process—this explains the figures in the 60-69 and 70+ groups.

Fast stream

Age band

Assessment centre

Interviewed

Permanent employment

30-39

3

1

1

40-49

0

0

0

50-59

0

0

0

60-69

0

0

0

70+

0

0

0

Note:

Fast stream data only take into consideration the stages of selection administered by the FCO. The Cabinet Office runs the selection processes prior to this, however statistics are not yet available for the 2007 cohort.