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The Takeover Challenge puts children and young people into real-life decision-making positions in organisations. Children gain a valuable insight and gain experience of a workplace, while organisations benefit from a fresh perspective on their work.

Paige was given the opportunity to take over from Philip Rycroft – Permanent Secretary for Department for the Exit from European Union on Thursday 22nd November.

Paige was given a run through for the plans for the day by Laura, Philip’s diary manager, and met the rest of Philip’s team. Laura had arranged for Paige to have her photo taken outside of 10 Downing Street but by the time we got there it was on lockdown (there was a lot of media attention regarding Brexit).

Paige’s next meeting was with some apprentices in the coffee shop. They explained all about the Civil Service apprenticeship program and she got to ask questions lots of questions about the roles that they had done.

Paige was then taken over to the MOD building where she got to speak to 2 Navy Reservists and 2 full time navy officers. She got to hear about their experiences of being at sea, their day to day roles, got to ask lots of questions which she really took advantage of and got a few goody bags too! This was the best part of Paige’s day and she was really excited! After the talk we went for a walk around the MOD building and got to see King Henry 8th’s wine Cellar.

Paige had been scheduled to have lunch with Phillip and then attend meetings with him. Unfortunately he went apologies and she was provided a mini tour of 70 Whitehall and then met with the Social Mobility Board members to learn about how they ensure that government jobs are accessible to everyone regardless of background.

When we got back to the office Phillip came over to introduce himself to Paige and then left to go to a meeting that Paige would be joining after it started. The meeting was at 100 Parliament Street so we took a slow walk down, signed in and made our way to the meeting. Paige was introduced to the team in the meeting, however was unable to stay for the entire meeting, and so we departed soon after.

About the author
Paige participated in 2018’s Whitehall Takeover Challenge
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