The government will recruit for 2,500 new technology roles by June 2025 through apprenticeship and early-talent programmes, the Cabinet Office has announced.
In July, Jeremy Quin, minister for the Cabinet Office, revealed 500 people would be joining the civil service digital, data and technology ranks by the end of the financial year via a cross-government digital apprenticeship programme.
The new programme will provide the opportunity for both civil servants and new entrants to be recruited into the "most in-demand" data and technology roles, such as cybersecurity technologists and software developers, the Cabinet Office said.
The Cabinet Office has now announced that, in addition to the 500 recruits in 2023-24, it will sign up another 1,300 to the apprenticeship programme by June 2025.
A further 700 roles are being created through an expansion of existing departmental digital programmes, such as the software-developer programme.
To reflect this, the Central Digital and Data Office's updated roadmap, published last week, includes a new target that, by June 2025, "at least 2,500 new entrants to the HMG DDaT profession will be introduced via apprenticeships and early-career talent programmes".
The Cabinet Office has also confirmed its pilot secondment programme dedicated to DDaT roles, which was also announced by Quin in July, is now open for applications.
The government is seeking “some of the UK’s best technical minds from industry… to work on the country’s biggest challenges, such as cyber security and new emerging technology”, the Cabinet Office said.
The digital-secondments programme and the apprenticeship recruitment drive will also support a new target for 6% of the overall civil service workforce to be members of the DDaT profession.
Quin said: “Today’s announcement drives forward our plans for a modern civil service equipped with the skills and capabilities needed to harness the power of digital, data and technology.
“By attracting and retaining the best talent, we will keep pace with technological change and deliver more efficient services for the British public.”
Alex Burghart, who is parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office and has responsibility for digital government, added that the apprenticeships will "build great new digital careers and capabilities both in Whitehall and across the country".
The civil service digital, data and technology profession grew by 19% between April 2022 and April 2023, according to the CDDO’s updated 2022-25 roadmap for digital and data. In the same period, more than 600 senior civil servants were upskilled on digital and data essentials, the roadmap states.