Details

Reference number

425987

Salary

£29,911 - £33,572

£29,911 (National), £33,271 (London) per annum. Rising to £30,212 (National), £33,572 (London) per annum on successful completion of probation.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

Executive Officer

B3 APT

Contract type

Permanent
Apprenticeship

Business area

Legal Services

Type of role

Legal Services

Working pattern

Full-time

Number of jobs available

Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information

Location

One role is based in Birmingham (23 Stephenson Street), with a second post located in London. (10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf)

About the job

Job summary

We are recruiting for two Paralegal Graduate Solicitor Apprentices to join our Legal Services team.

The postholders will provide high-quality paralegal support within Ofsted’s Legal Services team, working closely with advisory, litigation, and enforcement lawyers. They will assist with legal research, document preparation, case management, and administrative tasks, helping to ensure the effective delivery of legal services across the organisation.

This apprenticeship offers exposure to a broad range of public sector legal work and provides an excellent foundation for developing a career as a solicitor.

This is a fantastic opportunity to further your experience in Ofsted’s well-established team. The post holder will work with high-achieving professionals at all levels, surrounded by a friendly and supportive team. They will have access to many benefits, such as flexible working hours, the Civil Service Pension Scheme, and 32.5 days annual leave + 8 bank holidays. We offer a hybrid working model, so you may also choose to spend a proportion of time working from home.

Apprenticeship Programme

The apprenticeship will be fully funded and is a 30-month programme, completed alongside working in a paralegal role in the Legal Services team.

During this time, you will study for and undertake the SQE assessments, whilst compiling a portfolio of Qualifying Work Experience (QWE).

The apprenticeship will be delivered by our provider via a digital learning platform. Study leave of up to 10 days per year is available in accordance with Ofsted’s policies, in addition to the 20% (one day per week) apprenticeship learning time.

On successful completion of the programme and qualification as a Solicitor, you will be eligible to apply for a Legal Officer role.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants who already hold an LPC or LLM with LPC are not eligible to apply.
Your qualifications and eligibility will be formally checked by the training provider at the enrolment stage.

Programme timing

The successful candidate will be asked to enrol with our provider, by 3 November 2025.
The programme will commence on 15 December 2025.
The successful candidate must be available to start employment with Ofsted on 1 December 2025 in order to participate in the apprenticeship programme.

Job description

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Person specification

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Qualifications

A qualifying (English/Welsh) law degree with a minimum 2:1, or a non-law degree minimum 2:1 and a pass on an English law conversion course (GDL, PGDL, CPE or equivalent qualifications), in either case completed in the last 5 years.
Five GCSEs between A* - C (9 - 4) including English and Maths.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Seeing the Big Picture
Delivering at Pace
Making Effective Decisions
Communicating and Influencing
Managing a Quality Service

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

Seeing the Big Picture
Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Strong legal research and IT skills and experience.
A good working knowledge of public law and its application.
Experience of building positive and effective relationships and credibility with both internal and external stakeholders.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £29,911, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills contributes £8,665 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Full details of the benefits available can be found in our Ofsted Offer brochure

Ofsted is devoted to equality, diversity and inclusion. Within our Ofsted Strategy 2023-2027 we have stated that we will improve the representation of under-represented groups across the organisation and publish our progress on this annually. We are always looking to expand on our diverse workforce by recruiting candidates from varied backgrounds and differing experiences. We are proud to be a Disability Confident – Leader, we continually engage with our 5 staff networks for protected characteristics, and highlight the work of our Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Group. We ensure all candidates are treated with fair and open competition, with all appointments being made on merit and we use our Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) to provide assurance to all candidates of this.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Application and Shortlisting:

The selection panel will assess your application based on your evidence you have provided against the essential criteria as set out in the person specification.

You will also be asked to provide information within the “Employer/Activity History” section of the application form. This information is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV setting out your career history (this will be used in the sifting process).

In the event that we receive a high volume of applications, an initial sift will be conducted based on the following two criteria:

Behaviour - Seeing the big picture
Strong legal research and IT skills and experience

Applicants who meet these criteria will be invited to progress to the next stage of the selection process. If necessary, a further full sift will be undertaken, assessing all applications against the complete set of essential criteria.

Assessment and interview

Candidates who pass the benchmark at the shortlisting stage will be invited to an assessment and interview where you will be assessed against a combination of the Civil Service behaviours and the technical/experience skills set out in section 3 of the job specification.

As part of the selection process, you may be asked to complete a written assessment based on a legal scenario. You will have 45 minutes to review the scenario and prepare your response. Following this, you will be invited to present your findings to the panel as part of your interview.

Assessment and interviews will be held remotely on Tuesday 7 October 2025 and Wednesday 8 October 2025 via Microsoft teams.

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)
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

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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 .

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : People Services Delivery
Email : Jobs@ofsted.gov.uk
Telephone : 03000 131 487

Recruitment team

Email : Jobs@ofsted.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should email Ofsted recruitment at jobs@ofsted.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recrutiment/

Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills jobs

Paralegal Graduate Solicitor Apprentices