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Professions

The central government workforce is made up of a wide range of professions and includes every kind of professional – from bomb disposal experts to veterinary surgeons. There are currently 22 recognised professions, each led by a government Head of Profession.

Under the Skills Strategy, Heads of Profession have a more important role and will:

• provide occupational profiles for different roles
• set professional standards
• give tools and guidance to their individual members and managers to measure professional competence
• analyse how professional skills in central government relate to those in the wider economy
• work with HR and learning and development to integrate standards and qualifications into HR systems

For many professions, standards have already been set and are in use. In other areas such as policy development and operational delivery (where there are no equivalent professions outside the Civil Service), Heads of Profession will work with Government Skills to develop standards.

Once professional standards are in place, Heads of Profession will use them to set out clear career pathways, linked to qualifications where appropriate. This means you can be clear of the best development steps for your career.

Heads of Profession also lead work to define what broader experience would benefit each professional context. This could be gained within your profession, in another part of the Civil Service or in other sectors.

List of professions in the Civil Service