National government administrative occupations
Also called: Government officer, Government official, Administrative officer, Administrative assistant, Court administrative officer, Band 5, Band 6, Band a, Band b, Band c, Band d, Band 3d
National government administrative occupations undertake a variety of administrative and clerical duties in national government departments, and in local offices of national government departments.
Main tasks
- Assists senior government officers with policy work, external liaison or general administrative work
- Undertakes administrative duties specific to the operation of HM Revenue and Customs offices, Job Centres, Benefits Agency offices and other local offices of national government
- Maintains and updates correspondence, documents, data and other records for storage in files or on computer
- Classifies, sorts and files publications, correspondence etc. in offices and libraries
- Responds to telephone enquiries and other forms of correspondence
- Performs miscellaneous clerical tasks such as proof reading printed material, drafting letters, taking minutes etc
How to become one
Entry is possible to junior grades within this group with GCSEs/S grades, and/or relevant practical experience higher grades require A levels/H grades or equivalent, although many entrants are graduates. NVQs/SVQs, apprenticeships and professional qualifications are available for certain areas of work.
Ways in
- Apprenticeship (England): Public service operational delivery officer (level 3). England. Typically 12 months. Skills England standard ST0314.
- University: Arts & Humanities degrees, Offered by 27 universities in the UK
- University: Business & Commerce degrees, Offered by 27 universities in the UK
Pay · Outlook
- Median full-time pay: £33,000 a year The middle half earn £29,021 to £41,617.
- About 223,600 people work in this job now, and about 212,400 are projected by 2035. (-5%)
Related jobs
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Sources
- Office for National Statistics: Annual Population Survey: employment by occupation (April 2025 to March 2026), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Office for National Statistics: SOC 2020 Volume 1: structure and descriptions (2026-08-27 edition), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Department for Education: Skills Imperative 2035: employment projections by occupation (2021 to 2035 (Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics)), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
- Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (2025 provisional), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Updated 2026-10-03
Graduate outcomes: Discover Uni dataset, HESA (www.hesa.ac.uk), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Aggregated by subject and adapted by Peernovo.