About the job

Job summary

Exciting opportunities to learn new skills and take your first step towards developing a career within business administration at one of the leading competition and consumer agencies in the world.

Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) help people, businesses, and the UK economy by promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair behaviour. 

The CMA currently has one role open for apprenticeships in our Corporate Services - Executive Office, Security, Property and Performance team. The day-to-day tasks for successful candidates may include organising team meetings, collating agendas and checking team inboxes, taking responsibility for fielding e-mails to team members. You will provide administrative support for investigative, research and analytical work and set up and maintain accurate electronic filing systems.

Apprenticeship Eligibility

To be eligible to take part in the apprenticeship programme you must:

•  have lived in the UK and / or EU for 3 years prior to the apprentice start date;
• confirm this apprenticeship offers substantive new skills and knowledge to you.
• Applicants confirm they have not achieved an equivalent or higher-level qualification in a business administration related subject
• Applicants confirm they have not achieved a qualification higher than a Bachelors Degree (or equivalent level) in any subject
• Applicants confirm they are not currently studying towards another apprenticeship.

What we can offer you

We recognise the value of work-life balance, offering hybrid working arrangements and flexible working options including part-time, compressed hours, and job share arrangements. You will be equipped with excellent technology tools and services that facilitate collaboration regardless of your location. Our modern, professional workplaces across the UK provide an exceptional working environment. Furthermore, we proactively promote mental and physical well-being through a diverse range of well-being initiatives, including an employee assistance programme and a supportive network of mental health first aiders. 

The CMA is a hugely rewarding, diverse and stimulating place to work – an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself in doing so. All CMA staff enjoy generous benefits, including an excellent pension scheme, at least 25 days leave (increasing to 30 over five years), and generous maternity/paternity leave provision. You can also take advantage of interest-free season ticket loans and a cycle to work scheme.

To find out more about this opportunity and about working for the CMA, please click on the APPLY button.

CMA – Working for the CMA , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)

Or our LinkedIn page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/competition-and-markets-authority/

Job description

Key responsibilities for these roles will be wide-ranging and include opportunities for providing administrative support in a variety of work areas within the post holders’ respective teams. Responsibilities are subject to individual role allocations but will likely include:

• Organisation of team meetings, including checking diary availability, setting up meetings using software such as MS Teams, organising agendas and collation of relevant papers. 

• Supporting in the administration of team intranet pages and MS SharePoint site. 

• Regularly checking team inboxes and diaries, proactively identifying anything urgent or important and taking responsibility for fielding e-mails to team members / collating responses as appropriate.

• Provision of administrative support for investigative, research and analytical work. This may include collating evidence or information on issues to support potential or live investigations and / or conducting independent research using online sources and other channels.

• Communicating with companies and individuals to obtain valuable evidence for our investigations.

• Set-up and maintenance of accurate electronic filing systems, for example, ensuring business sensitive information received from third parties is gathered, logged and filed accurately and timely.

• Maintaining oversight of other electronic project systems, including ensuring project invoices are processed efficiently.

• Ensuring confidentiality of sensitive information, for example data provided by third parties to the CMA's investigation in accordance with the Enterprise Act 2002 and / or the management of personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as it applies to the Data Protection Act 2018.

• Checking for compliance within reports received from third parties.

• Provision of other administrative support as required.

This job description is not exclusive or exhaustive. It is intended as an outline indication of the areas of activity for these roles and may be amended in light of the changing needs of the organisation.

Person specification

The CMA is seeking to appoint the best qualified candidate for this role and welcomes applications from under-represented groups.

When completing your written application, please ensure you provide evidence and examples (as far as you are able), in response to the Essential Criteria below, and against which your application will be assessed.

It is essential that you can provide evidence and examples for each of the following selection criteria in your application.

If you do not meet the lead selection criteria in your application, the panel will not be required to score your application against the remaining essential criteria of the role.

Essential Criteria

• Evidence of strong administrative and organisational skills, including the ability to manage your work and prioritise successfully in order to meet deadlines (lead selection criteria)
• Examples of proficient use of Microsoft applications, including MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. (lead selection criteria)
• Evidence of good verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to research information on an issue with high attention to detail.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with evidence of working collaboratively with others, including through working as part of a team.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,553, Competition & Markets Authority contributes £7,439 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and an online application form. Further details about application requirements are listed on the application form.

The selection process will comprise of the sift (CV & application review) and an interview. Arrangements for the interview will be enclosed in the invitation.  Interviews will be conducted on Microsoft Teams.

The sift will take place between 27 February to 01 March 2024.

If your application is successful you will be invited to attend an interview. You will be notified via email to log-in to your Civil Service Account and book your interview slot. 

Interviews will be held week commencing 11 March 2024.

The first part of the interview will be a presentation, the topic of which will be shared nearer the time. Details will be forwarded before the interview. The second part of the interview will be a 1 hour panel interview where you will be asked questions based on the Behaviours and Experience outlined in the role profile.  

Reasonable adjustments

We want to make sure no one is at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process.

For example, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you are deaf, a Language Service Professional. You might also require additional time to complete a timed assessment or a sign language interpreter to support with the relaying of information.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.