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Broader experience

What is broader experience and how it fits with PSG

Last updated - 22nd July 2009

Depth and breadth of experience are important if you are working in the SCS or aspire to the SCS. Deep professional knowledge accumulated progressively during the course of a career is essential to operate at senior levels within any profession.

What is broader experience?

At the leadership level, breadth of experience becomes increasingly important. At senior levels of the civil service, work is frequently complex in nature and requires a profound understanding of the impacts and interactions with individuals, organisations and other sectors of the economy. Broader experience, however it is gained, can help to deliver the type of experience which is required at senior levels to deal with this complexity.
Permanent Secretaries agreed that from 1 April 2012, anyone entering the SCS must be able to demonstrate that they have gained broader experience. Candidates will need to show how they have developed and applied new knowledge and skills through activities aimed at gaining broader experience.  This might include:

  • understanding of strategic issues in other parts of the delivery chain and/or the strategic issues facing the broader public sector and how this understanding might be applied

  • more effective or more innovative ways of gathering stakeholder perspectives and concerns

  • demonstrating an understanding of and developing appropriate responses to concerns of end users/tax-payers

  • focus on outcomes and how to deliver them

Developing the broader experience principle

Government Skills is working in partnership with departments and government professions to develop a statement of intent for broader experience that will set out the principles of what is expected for all promotions to the Senior Civil Service (SCS) from 2012. In addition to this, specific criteria for each profession will be developed where there is a requirement. Professions will stipulate whether the use of these criteria is mandatory or optional.

The statement of intent will be used to guide career choices that individuals make, particularly if they aspire to the SCS. It will, with further guidance, form part of the material used in selecting and recruiting people to the SCS from 2012. It will be a general statement. The reason for this is because previous approaches to defining what is meant by broader experience and how it should be gained have in the main been reduced to a tick-box exercise.

Government Skills would like to see people genuinely seek and benefit from the development that comes with working in a different organisation and context to broaden their professional experience.

More information

PSG skills identifier

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