Our 40 Fast Streamers: record number of Civil Service offers to Rare candidates

The best people are Rare, so you can imagine our delight when 40 of our candidates were offered places on the Civil Service’s award-winning leadership programme in September 2017, the Fast Stream. The Fast Stream - ranked second in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2017 - is the Civil Service’s prestigious programme for accelerating the progression of the best and the brightest graduates in the country toward leadership positions across government departments..

Rare supports our candidates throughout the Fast Stream application process, including delivery of a gruelling, three-hour, specially-designed mock Fast Stream Assessment Centre (FSAC) in person at our offices, complete with detailed feedback on strengths and areas for improvement. Rare candidates are talented individuals from black, minority ethnic and other non-traditional backgrounds, many of whom have overcome considerable social and economic disadvantage to rise to the top in their studies. Partnership with Rare forms part of the Civil Service drive to increase the representation of top talent from all backgrounds on the Fast Stream and its related internships.

We spoke to a selection of Rare candidates who recently applied successfully to the Fast Stream, asking about their experience with us, what appealed to them about the Civil Service, and their hopes for the future.

Kerem Ekim Osborne Dikerdem was delighted to receive his offer to join the Generalist stream. “Receiving an offer to join the Civil Service Fast Stream was amazing. Rare’s help was invaluable, I had not even considered applying to the Civil Service before they showed me the opportunity.”

Chloe Ogbonna-Marks will be joining the Human Resources stream, and is excited by the opportunities she will have to broaden her skillset on the Fast Stream. “The Fast Stream is a brilliant opportunity to develop my skills. I am most looking forward to developing my understanding of managing and delivering projects.”

Chloe found Rare’s guidance at every stage of her application to be particularly useful. “Rare helped throughout the process. They knew exactly what the Civil Service was looking for and how I could demonstrate these skills. I am not sure if I would have been successful without Rare’s training and guidance.”

Barbara Ojei Agwaziam received offers for the Project Delivery, Commercial and Generalist streams, opting to join the Generalist Stream. She is particularly interested in working within education, and reducing inequality with respect to attainment for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. “I am excited to gain an insight into how policies are created, and how policy decisions are made across different departments during my time on the Fast Stream.”

Vishal Wilde will be joining the Generalist Stream too. He was fast-tracked through to the assessment centre after earning a ‘Fast Pass’, as a result of completing the Civil Service’s Summer Diversity Internship Programme (SDIP). Vishal aims to complete a PhD later in his career and believes the Fast Stream will provide a great platform for his further studies. “Gaining a greater insight into the machinery of government will help me, when conducting policy-specific research as part of my PhD.”

Rare is delighted to have supported Kerem, Chloe, Barbara and Vishal and proud of their achievements, and we can’t wait to see where their Civil Service careers will take them.

Rare is currently supporting applicants with their applications for September 2018 intake and looks forward to many more Rare candidates receiving offers to join the Fast Stream!