Commercial capabilities are the government's highest priority according to the Chief Executive of the Civil Service.
The Chief Executive of the Civil Service says the commercial skills and capabilities of the government are in need of improvement. Graduates joining the Civil Service's Commercial Graduate Scheme will be at the heart of these commercially focused changes across Whitehall.
According to John Manzoni, a former chief executive at BP and Talisman Energy, improving commercial skills is vital after letting them decline.
"It is the highest priority across the whole of government... to build skills and capabilities in the commercial function," he says. "Over the years we have withered our commercial capability inside government and when [we] examine these things [we] know [we're] not doing some things as well as we can."
To counter the decline in the government and the Civil Service's commercial acumen, the organisation is looking for graduates to join their Commercial Scheme and take on a range of duties across departments.
Commercial Scheme graduate Andrew Chhoa-Howard, who works as a Policy Advisor for the Cabinet Office, says the work often involves making some big decisions.
"Commercial is always exciting, challenging and stretching because it [is always involved] in the most difficult challenges faced by government, this makes it a central part of policy, decision making and operations to tackle issues across the UK."
John Manzoni believes graduates will have to face some tough decisions in the future.
"A good way to illustrate this is to ask will the next phase involve more or less outsourcing?" he says. "Will we use the outside market more or less as we go forward? I don't think we can answer that question right now."
"The rebuilding of commercial capabilities and a commercial function across the government is mine and Jeremy's [Heywood] highest priority as we go forward."