DWP Jobs & Careers Service - Explore work, build a CV and look for jobs beta
DWP's Explore work, build a CV and look for jobs beta service assessment report
Explore work, build a CV and look for jobs
| Assessment date | 6 May 2026 |
| Assessment stage | Beta |
| Assessment type | Assessment |
| Service provider | DWP |
| Result | Green |
Service description
This service aims to solve the problem of getting trusted help with finding work. It helps users work out where to start, or what the next step is for them via a career-focused chatbot or the Find a Job search. It helps users make progress towards their goals with an action plan. It helps overcome specific barriers (like creating a first CV) with targeted tools. It will in future provide access to human careers advisors and offer far more targeted provision to overcome barriers to work.
Service users
This service is for all people of working age in the UK.
It is particularly aimed at people wanting help to find work, progress in work or stay in work, with the following high level user needs:
● as a person who wants to work, I need to know where to start so that I can make progress
● as a person with diverse experience, responsibilities and goals, I need help to explore my options so that I can make decisions
● as a person who wants to look for work, I need a trusted source of job adverts so that I can apply with confidence
● as a person who wants to apply for jobs, I need help to structure and write my CV, so that I can show employers my skills and experience
Things the service team has done well:
● the service team’s command of users’ needs, the desire to build a great service and their passion came through loud and clear. They have considered the whole problem for the user, not just parts. The panel commends their work in one of Government’s first ‘next generation’ public services and urges that the iteration and improvements continue in public beta towards an outstanding service.
● the service team have considered the whole problem for the user, not just parts.
● the service team have considered the full experience of the users in their research.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service was rated green for point 1 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● continue to work with quantitative data to triangulate research findings as the service gains more users
- Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service was rated green for point 2 of the Standard
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● consider how people searching on behalf of others might engage with the journey, for example, parents/partners
● the CV builder relies on the user knowing their own skills, these might not be easy for the user to identify (if new to work or neurodivergent), so the team should consider how to prompt the user to think about skills acquired beyond work experience or how to use the AI tool before they get to the CV builder/access it
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service was rated green for point 3 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● prioritise work to join up the under-16 user journey
● consider the whole user journey, regardless of departmental responsibility, so that it’s easy to access the right support, there’s no duplication and there is a clear purpose for all the parts of the services available to users
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service was rated green for point 4 of the Standard.
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 5 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● as there are several offline contact points in the user journey, the service team should ensure that they’re not creating any unintentional loops for the user that make it hard to engage (for example, being unable to access offline support without having an online presence)
● from the accessibility audit, there is a sense that components are being created without accessibility being considered or tested as standard (missing elements). The service team might want to consider adding accessibility criteria to QA/testing so that the standards embed
● the service team should build a clear plan and timeline for, at minimum, the severe and moderate issues identified so that there is no risk of deprioritising in future sprints
● chat responses not being consistently announced in screen readers feels like it could become a severe problem with the chat service, the service team should examine how this can be resolved
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service was rated green for point 6 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● the team size is large, and this brings challenges that the team recognise, with the team expecting to make further changes to how it is structured going into public beta
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service was rated green for point 7 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● the team demonstrated a well-considered approach to agile delivery, both in terms of how user feedback is consumed and the agile delivery methods put into practice (Kanban), ensuring that changes can be made frequently and continuously to respond to needs, not just on a fortnightly basis
● the panel has concerns and pondered a ‘not met’ (amber) on this standard. DWP is rightly seeking to foster reuse and coherence across services in the organisation andthis objective must continue. But a delivery approach with levels of controls and governance that add weeks to the development and feature rollouts is antithesis to agility and a missed opportunity for a service that is a trailblazer for the next generation of public services in the UK. An urgent consideration must be given on how delivery teams that already possess the skills and experience to build secure and resilient services can be further empowered to make more decisions locally, whilst still complying with clear technical guardrails and rules, with a view of enabling teams to rollout new features in days, not weeks and months. This is a challenge that DWP recognises, and the panel urges continued efforts in improving this
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service was rated green for point 8 of the Standard.
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service was rated green for point 9 of the Standard.
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service was rated green for point 10 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● while the team has shown they are doing a good job deriving their KPI’s from the goals of the service the team should develop a Performance Framework to document why they chose the KPIs and which goal they are referring to
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service was rated green for point 11 of the Standard.
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service was rated green for point 12 of the Standard.
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service was rated green for point 13 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
● as the service team is testing new branding and ways of working, they should consider how you share your findings across government
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 14 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
Next Steps
This service can now move into a public beta phase, subject to getting approval from the GDS spend control team.