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Closing date for applications for the Speaker’s Parliamentary Scheme is Monday 30 July

The Speaker’s Parliamentary Placements Scheme is an initiative set up by Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP, Eric Ollerenshaw OBE MP and Jo Swinson MP with strong support from the Speaker of the House of Commons. The Social Mobility Foundation administrates the scheme.  They want to encourage people from diverse backgrounds across the UK who wouldn’t normally feel that they could get a foot in the door of parliament to apply for the Speaker’s Parliamentary Placements scheme to get a taste of working in politics.  For more detail and an application form, please visit http://www.socialmobility.org.uk/speakers-parliamentary-placements-scheme/

The Speaker’s Parliamentary Placements Scheme provides a nine month paid work experience placement designed to open up Parliament to people from disadvantaged backgrounds who are interested in politics but who would not be able to afford to undertake an unpaid internship. The Scheme aims to give successful candidates a detailed understanding of how the House of Commons operates and for them to gain work experience in the political sector along with the experience of working as part of a team in a small office environment.

Successful candidates will spend their time getting to understand parliament by working with an MP in their office from Monday – Thursday and spending Friday rotating through departments in the House of Commons to gain an insight into how bills are passed and how Parliament functions. Although the Scheme does not ask candidates to have any party affiliation, successful candidates will be working with an MP to help run their Westminster office and therefore will be expected to have an interest in and some knowledge of British politics.

The closing date for applications is 9am on Monday 30 July. It is expected that the first round of interviews will be starting from the week commencing 20th August. The Scheme is due to start in late-October 2012. Successful candidates will need to complete a comprehensive security check in order to gain full access to parliament.

The Speaker’s Parliamentary Placements Scheme welcomes enquiries and applications from everyone and values diversity in its workforce.

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