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Co-convenors of the FDA Fast Stream section, Dan Marshall and Honey Butterworth, spoke to member Jo Salway about her journey from the Fast Stream to the Senior Civil Service.

The Fast Stream is open to all ages. However, 86% of appointable candidates in the 2024 round of recruitment were aged 26 or under. Marshall, a second year Fast Streamer in the Scottish Government, and Butterworth, a third year Fast Streamer in the Department for Education and member of the TUC Young Workers’ Committee, spoke to a former Fast Streamer about the FDA’s work to support young members and how the Fast Stream helped to shape their career.

Jo Salway is Director of Social Partnership, Employability and Fair Work in the Welsh Government, who joined the Fast Stream straight out of university as a young worker.

Honey Butterworth (HB): Jo, could you tell us about your background, your career and experiences from the Fast Stream?

Jo Salway (JS): I joined the Fast Stream in 1996. I was on the old version of the Fast Stream where you joined a single department and you stayed there for the duration. I graduated from university on 14 July 1996 and I started work on 19 August 1996.

I think in all honesty, I didn’t necessarily even realise what the Fast Stream meant. Quite what the opportunity it was, or the expectations around career progression that I’d then take from there.

The Fast Stream was a great opportunity for me, notwithstanding the fact I didn’t really know what I’d got into, but I think there were two key points for me. One was the range of jobs I got to do. That’s a huge amount of opportunity. Often working on short-term, but very important projects.

The other thing was getting the networks at a very early stage of working with people who were either already very senior or who were going to be progressing up, always a little bit further ahead of me as I went through my career knowing them personally and being able to turn to them for advice or informal mentoring, or hopefully job offers as my career went on.

Dan Marshall (DM): The Fast Stream is often our first time interacting with trade unions. How important do you think it is that Fast Streamers understand the role of a union, their rights in the workplace and the support that’s available to them?

JS: I think it’s really important that everyone understands their rights and I don’t think it’s actually an age-specific question, but I would say to anyone who is joining any employer to check out the union opportunities. I think we went through a period probably in the 1990s, where there was a feeling that a trade union was a political endeavour, and of course it’s not, it’s about representing the voice of workers.

Within my job I co-fund, with the Wales TUC, a scheme called Unions and the World of Work, which is actually about going into schools and starting a conversation very early on with young people about what their rights are, and I think it’s really important that when you go into the world of work, [you know] what you can expect from your employer as well as what they can expect from you. Unions are a really key place to make sure you know that and of course, a really good support, if unfortunately things go wrong… Unions are a very positive place to turn to.