Specialist skills
Explore the specialist skills you need to grow professional expertise - part of the Government Campus learning curriculum.
Everyone in the Civil Service should be a member of at least one profession. Government professions develop the capability of a group of people with specialist skills, knowledge and expertise. For example, finance or operational delivery. They also define the awareness level learning that creates the essential capabilities every civil servant needs.
You can also explore other parts of the learning curriculum:
- Foundational skills you need as a civil servant
- Skills you need to work in government
- Skills you need as a leader and manager
- Domain-specific knowledge you need within your organisation
Specialist skills
Professions work across government on behalf of departments, agencies and functions and an individual can belong to more than one government profession. For example, a HR professional might also be part of the project delivery profession. Professions develop specialist skills and knowledge in people, set standards and define career pathways. This includes:
- Developing members of a profession to progress from entry into the profession to deep specialist - through accredited routes as well as continuous professional development.
- Supporting members of one profession to build interdisciplinary range through another profession.
- Defining the awareness level learning that creates the essential capabilities every civil servant needs.
To find out more about this learning, please read our .
Government professions
There are four types of government profession:
- Operational delivery
- Policy
- Professions linked to government functions - for example, finance and HR
- Specialist professions - for example, tax and legal
You can find out more about professions on our ‘Government professions’ page.
Updates to this page
Published 14 December 2021Last updated 8 April 2024 + show all updates
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Updated version of the 'Developing specialist skills in within government' document.
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A separate 'Government professions' has now been created which this page links to.
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Professions Best practice framework document added Updated list of recognised cross-government professions
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An updated version of the Strand 4 - Specialist Skills guide has been added.
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First published.