The new Head of Strategy and Engagement in the School of Government’s digital & AI team requires no experience in digital, data, innovation, AI, learning design, or delivery. Good predictor for how it will go…
The Cabinet Office is hiring for the role, which sits within the ‘new’ National School of Government and Public Services announced by Darren Jones some months prior to his ejection from government. It’s a rebrand of Government Skills…
The hire will lead strategy for the Digital, Data, Innovation and AI (DDI & AI) Team, described as a “dynamic and fast-growing team with a remit to improve DDI&AI capability in non-digital specialists across all government departments.” Implementing AI and digital capability across government is a pretty big deal…
The role is paid £83,355. While essential criteria include strong communication skills, strategic thinking, and the “ability to nurture productive collaborative and trusting relationships,” experience in capability or learning design & delivery or experience in digital, data, innovation or AI are only ‘desirable.’ This is classic Civil Service inward hiring practice…
UPDATE: Ameer Kotecha, ex-diplomat and director of the Centre for Government Reform, said:
“In all its wisdom, Whitehall has decided that it is not “essential” for the person tasked with equipping civil servants in AI skills to have any experience in AI (or even digital) themselves. This is absurd. And while relevant experience is deemed a second-order priority, being silver-tongued enough to craft “easily understood narratives to persuade and influence” ministers is deemed a non-negotiable. This is not only classic Sir Humphrey stuff, it also points once again to the civil service’s deeply flawed approach to recruitment and its disdain for expertise. AI is transforming the way people work.
It has the potential to unleash huge productivity and efficiency gains in the public sector. But if the civil service is not even interested in hiring competent people with AI experience to upskill others, there is little reason for optimism that these potential benefits will be seized.
Lee Anderson, speaking to The Sun’s Tom Scotson, reveals the wokest thing he’s ever done: “I once had a vegetarian thought, about becoming a vegetarian. That was quickly dismissed when I had a bacon sandwich…”