Community Engagement Apprentice

• 37 hours per week
• 21-month training contract

East Suffolk Council is an exciting place to work and a great place to make a real difference to people's lives, delivering vital services to a quarter of a million people across East Suffolk.

We have an established and successful apprenticeship scheme, which has seen over 80% of apprentices stay on beyond their apprenticeships to develop promising careers with the Council. If you are looking for an exciting opportunity where you can earn money as well as gaining experience and a recognised qualification, then look no further!

This exciting and unique opportunity will involve providing project and administrative support to the Communities Team and to the wider organisation, specifically in relation to community engagement. We have to understand the needs of our communities even more intimately so that we can use that insight to design services and fund and deliver projects that work more effectively for our residents. This is particularly important as we redesign many services through the Local Government Reorganisation process.

You will assist our Engagement Lead with delivering more, and more effective, community engagement work. This will cover the full suite of engagement activity, including strategy, survey design, promotion, optimisation, data analysis, co production and report writing. You'll have the chance to work hands on with a large number of varied community engagement projects, everything from online surveys to in person workshops, and potentially including work on nationally recognised programmes like Marmot Place and Pride in Place. You'll learn about engagement strategy, the soft skills and behaviours required to be an effective engagement professional, how to engage with different audiences, project management, marketing and communications, working with varied stakeholders, working with data, monitoring and evaluation, reporting and budgeting - and much more.

The engagement activity you'll be working on ranges from planning consultations to co production of health services through our Marmot programme, small scale local engagement to district wide engagement with thousands of responses. You'll be in the perfect position to optimise this work and, in doing so, make a real difference to the lives of East Suffolk residents.

Your administrative duties will include updating web content, creating surveys, writing reports and assisting at face to face engagement activity.

We can offer an interesting and varied work programme, a positive team environment, and the opportunity to get involved in a variety of tasks at different levels and to lead projects of your own.

You will need to have excellent interpersonal skills, an aptitude for ICT and be educated to A level standard or equivalent. You will also have English and Maths GCSEs at Grades 4 9 or Grade C and above (or equivalent). No previous experience is required, as full training will be provided, however a passion to be a positive and professional ambassador for the council and provide the best experience for our customers is a must.

A fully funded and supported Level 4 Communities based apprenticeship.

• Generous holiday entitlement (equivalent to 25 days a year, increasing to 31 days after 5 years' service, plus bank holidays)
• Flexible working arrangements
• The opportunity to meet and work alongside other apprentices in the organisation.
• Great training and development opportunities to add to your CV.
• A wide variety of staff support networks including access to health and wellbeing initiatives and programmes.
• Discounts on mobile phones, computers, holiday and travel, fashion and clothing, health and beauty and many other products and services.

East Suffolk Council is an exciting place to work and a great place to make a real difference to people's lives, delivering vital services to a quarter of a million people across East Suffolk.

We hugely value our staff and know that in order for us to remain successful, it is essential for us to recognise talented employees, developing and retaining them within the organisation. We are therefore committed to investing in our staff and providing first class support to ensure a positive culture and rewarding careers.