Public sector graduate schemes compared

The five best-known public sector graduate schemes are the Civil Service Fast Stream, the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme (GMTS), the National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP) for councils, Teach First and Police Now. The first three train you for management and policy work through placements. Teach First and Police Now put you in a frontline job, a classroom or a police beat, from the start, with a qualification earned as you go.

The schemes side by side

Scheme	Where you work	What you end up as	Who runs recruitment
Civil Service Fast Stream	Government departments and agencies, UK-wide	A civil servant in a specialist or generalist stream, aiming at middle management	Cabinet Office
NHS GMTS	NHS organisations in England	A manager in finance, HR, general management, informatics or policy	NHS England
NGDP	English and Welsh councils	A local government officer with management training	Local Government Association
Teach First	Schools in disadvantaged areas of England	A qualified teacher	Teach First (charity)
Police Now	Partner police forces in England and Wales	A police constable or detective	Police Now (charity) with forces

None of these schemes covers all four nations in the same way. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements for teaching and policing, and the NHS GMTS is an England scheme. Read the eligibility section before you spend an evening on an application.

What each scheme pays

Starting pay is the hardest thing to compare, because each scheme sets it differently and the management schemes publish their figures each recruitment round on their own sites. Look up the current figure for the intake you are applying to.

The frontline schemes are easier to pin down because they use national pay scales. Teach First trainees are employed by a school, usually on the unqualified teacher range in the first year. From 1 September 2026 that range runs from £23,732 to £36,494 outside London, with higher figures in the London areas. Once you have QTS you move onto the main pay range, which starts at £34,069 (M1) outside London. The teacher pay scales guide has the full table.

Police Now participants join as constables. A new constable in England and Wales starts at £32,255 (PP1) from 1 September 2026 and moves up the scale to £52,015 at PP7. London forces add London weighting and allowances.

Fast Stream and NGDP pay sits inside the employer’s normal grade structure, so the figure can vary by department or council and by location. GMTS trainees are paid a set scheme salary, which the scheme publishes each year.

How long you are committing for

Teach First and Police Now are built around a two-year programme: you train intensively before you start, then work full time in a school or a force while completing your qualification. Leaving early is possible, but you lose the qualification route and the employer loses a trainee it planned around, so treat the commitment as real.

The Fast Stream, GMTS and NGDP are structured as a series of placements, each lasting several months, with study alongside. At the end you apply for a permanent post. On the Fast Stream that usually means a substantive role at a set grade in a department. NGDP graduates are employed by a host council, and whether you are kept on depends on that council. GMTS graduates apply for NHS management posts, often within the region where they trained.

How the selection processes compare

Every scheme uses online tests and an assessment centre or final stage, with a different emphasis in each.

• The Fast Stream uses Civil Service Success Profiles: behaviours, strengths and ability tests, with a written exercise and group or interview stages at the end.
• The GMTS uses online tests, a video or written stage and an assessment centre, with questions tied to NHS values.
• NGDP uses online tests and an assessment centre run for the LGA, then a separate interview with a host council.
• Teach First uses a competency and values-based process that includes a sample teaching activity.
• Police Now combines its own assessment with the national police entry checks: fitness test, medical, vetting and biometric checks.

The guides on assessment centres and situational judgement tests cover the stages that most of these share.

Choosing between them

Two questions do most of the work. Do you want to manage and design services, or deliver them directly? And how much do you care which sector you end up in?

If policy and central government appeal, the Fast Stream is the most direct route, and its specialist streams (economics, digital, analysis, finance and others) let you use a particular degree. To manage hospitals or health services, the GMTS gives NHS-specific experience that the Fast Stream does not. NGDP suits people interested in how local services such as housing, planning and social care are run, and it tends to give early responsibility in smaller teams.

Teach First and Police Now suit people who want the frontline job itself. Both are demanding in the first year, with long hours and a lot of study, and both lead to a qualification you keep whichever direction you take afterwards.

You can also skip the schemes. Many graduates enter the Civil Service at executive officer or higher executive officer level through ordinary vacancies, or join the NHS in an Agenda for Change post, and progress just as fast. Schemes give structure and a network, while the ordinary route gives a salary sooner and more choice of location. The Fast Stream profile and NHS GMTS profile go into each management scheme in more detail, and the NGDP, Teach First and Police Now guides cover the rest.

When to apply

Most of these schemes open in the autumn for intakes the following summer or autumn, and some close early once they have enough applicants. Intakes and streams change from year to year, and a scheme or stream can pause recruitment for a cycle. Check each scheme’s site in late summer, note the closing dates and start with whichever has the earliest deadline.