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Young people on council career path

Posted onPosted on 16th Aug
Young people on council career path

Nearly 200 apprentices have worked on placements at Nottinghamshire County Council in the last five years as part of the authority’s wider commitment to reduce youth unemployment, upskill the local workforce and attract and retain more young talent in the public sector.

In total, 192 apprentices have had placements with the council since June 2011, with more than three-quarters (77%) moving straight into a job or further education on completion of their apprenticeship in the last 12 months.

The apprenticeships have been offered across the county, with a particular focus on areas of higher youth unemployment, such as Ashfield and Mansfield. Currently, 52 apprentices are working in a variety of roles, from community care officers to customer service advisors.

Pearce Whetton, (20), of Sutton, took-up an apprenticeship placement in October 2013 and secured a full-time post with the authority two years later as a trainee health and safety officer.

Pearce (pictured), who won the Advanced Apprentice of the Year award at the Prostart Awards ceremony, said: “I took up the apprenticeship because I wanted to gain experience in a working environment and learn new skills. The apprenticeship helped me gain confidence and developed my interest, knowledge and experience in health and safety.”

The council’s scheme, which is delivered in partnership with Futures Apprenticeships Training Agency, has received national recognition, picking up an Apprenticeships 4 England Bronze Award for supporting apprenticeship recruitment.

All apprenticeship vacancies at the council are advertised at www.futuresadvice.co.uk/apprentice-vacancies
It’s not only through apprenticeships that the council is helping to nurture local talent.

It has been actively involved in the National Graduate Development Programme since 2009, which sees graduates recruited as national management trainees on two-year, fixed-term contracts.

During that time, the graduates experience at least three placement opportunities with a strategic, operational and frontline focus.

So far, around 20 National Management Trainees have been taken on through the programme.

Meanwhile, the council’s finance department is helping to nurture the accountants and finance managers of the future through a financial management training scheme, run in partnership with other public sector organisations across the county.

The scheme sees trainees rotated around participating organisations over a 39 month period, experiencing a number of disciplines linked to public sector finance, including audit, management accounts, budgeting and financial monitoring.

In total, eighteen trainees have taken part in the scheme, including the two most recent recruits who started last month.

Councillor Sheila Place, Chairman of the Personnel Committee at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “As one of Nottinghamshire’s largest employers and providers of public services, it is important that we practice what we preach by providing good, work-based learning opportunities for young people.

“The County Council is a diverse organisation, providing a huge variety of services to a population of over 700,000 people, which means our workforce covers many and varied job roles and disciplines.

“I am proud of the number and type of professional development opportunities we offer to young people. We are currently awaiting detail of the new Apprentice Levy and Public Sector Duty in April 2017 which we hope will give us the chance to extend our current offer even further.”